r 



WESLEY'S DESIGNATED SUCCESSOR. 



WESLEY'S DESIGNATED SUCCESSOR 



OF THE 

REV. JOHN WILLIAM FLETCHER, 

Vicar of Maddey, Shropshire. 



BY 

REV. U TYERMAN, 

AUTHOR OF 

•'THE LIFE AND TIMES OF THE REV. SAMUEL WESLEY, MA., RECTOR OF EP WORTH 
"THE LIFE AND TIMES OF THE REV. JOHN WESLEY, M.A. ;" 
" 1 HE LIFE OF THE REV. GEORGE WHITEFIELD. B, A. 
AND "THE OXFORD METHODISTS. " 



PHILLIPS AND HUNT. 
WALDEN AND STOWE. 

MDCCCLXXXIII. 



Who has shared my joys and sorrows for nearly 
thirty years. 

L. TYERMAN. 



PREFACE. 



" TEAN GUILLAUME DE LA FLECHERE," wrote 



Robert Southey, "was a man of rare talents, and 



rarer virtue. No age or country has ever produced a man 
of more fervent piety, or more perfect charity ; no Church 
has ever possessed a more apostolic minister. He was a 
man of whom Methodism may well be proud, as the most 
able of its defenders ; and whom the Church of England 
may hold in remembrance, as one of the most pious and 
excellent of her sons." 

" Fletcher was a saint," said Isaac Taylor, " as unearthly 
a being as could tread the earth at all." 

"Fletcher," remarked Robert Hall, "is a seraph who burns 
with the ardour of divine love. Spurning the fetters of 
mortality, he almost habitually seems to have anticipated 
the rapture of the beatific vision." 

Dr. Dixon, one of the greatest of Methodist preachers, 
observed, " I conceive Fletcher to be the most holy man 
who has been upon earth since the apostolic age." 

No apology is needed for publishing the life of such a 
man, unless it can be shown that a life worthy of him is 
already in existence. 

Excepting the brief and exceedingly imperfect biography 
by the Rev. Robert Cox, in 1822, only two Lives of Fletcher 




VI 



Preface. 



have been published since his death, ninety-seven years ago ; 
namely, Wesley's in 1786, and Benson's in 1804. 

It is true that, in 1790, the Rev. Joshua Gilpin, Vicar of 
Rockwardine, appended twenty-nine biographical " Notes " 
to different chapters of Fletcher's " Portrait of St. Paul ; " 
but the facts they contained, in addition to those which 
Wesley had already given, were not many. 

A year later, in 1791, the Rev. Melville Home, Curate of 
Madeley, published " Posthumous Pieces of the late Rev. 
John William De La Flechere," a volume of 435 pages, 
nearly 400 of which are filled with Fletcher's Letters to his 
friends. This volume has been of great service to me in 
the present work. Many quotations are made from it, and 
are indicated by the footnotes, "Letters, 1 791." 

When Fletcher died, some of his admirers wished Mr. 
Ireland to be his biographer ; others desired Fletcher's 
widow to undertake the task. Both of them judiciously 
declined. Wesley was then fixed upon. He asked Mr. 
Ireland to supply him with materials, but Mr. Ireland refused : 
Mrs. Fletcher, however, rendered him important help. In 
unpublished letters to Sarah Crosby, she writes : — 

" Mr. Ireland knew and loved my dear husband as scarcely 
any other person did ; and if he chooses to print a journal 
of their travels and of the great spiritual labours of which 
he was an eye-witness, it would not be wrong. But this is 
not his intention. He only wishes to gather materials for 
me. With a good deal of labour, I have collected some 
sweet fragments, on different subjects, from little pocket- 
books, but I have handed them to Mr. Wesley, who, however, 
tells me he has done nothing towards the Life, and that he 
has enough to occupy his time for a year to come. Indeed, 
he seems to be in doubt whether he will be able to write 



Preface. 



vii 



the Life at all. I hope the accounts I have given him will 
not be shortened ; if they be, I shall repent that I did not 
print them myself." 

This was written on June 20, 1786, and shows that ten 
months after Fletcher's death, Wesley had not even begun 
Fletcher's biography. Fourteen weeks afterwards, he made a 
start. An extract from his journal is worth quoting : — 

"1786. September 25. Monday. We took coach" at 
Bristol, " in the afternoon ; and on Tuesday morning reached 
London. I now applied myself in earnest to the writing of 
Mr. Fletcher's Life, having procured the best materials I 
could. To this I dedicated all the time I could spare till 
November, from five in the morning till eight at night. 
These are my studying hours ; I cannot write longer in a 
day without hurting my eyes." 

For little more than a month the venerable biographer, 
now in the eighty-fourth year of his age, devoted all the 
time he " could spare " in preparing the Life of one whom 
he pronounced the most " unblameable man, in every respect, 
that, within four-score years," he had " found either in 
Europe or America ! " The biography was finished in the 
month of November, and in December was published with 
the title " A Short Account of the Life and Death of the 
Rev. John Fletcher. By the Rev. John Wesley. Sequor, 
11011 passibus cequis. London, 1786." It certainly was a 
" SJwrt Account" — a i2mo volume of 227 pages, which 
would have been much smaller if the type and the space 
between the lines had been different. This was the first 
Life of Wesley's greatest friend, and his " Designated Suc- 
cessor" ! The veteran was far too busy to do justice to his 
great " helper." 

Eighteen years elapsed before another and larger Life 



viii 



Preface. 



was given to the public. This was undertaken in 1801 by 
the Rev. Joseph Benson, at the request of Fletcher's widow, 
and of the Methodist Conference of that year. In 1804 it 
was published with the following title : — " The Life, of the 
Rev. John W. de la Flechere, compiled from the Narratives 
of the Reverend Mr. Wesley ; the Biographical Notes of the 
Reverend Mr. Gilpin ; from his own Letters ; and other 
Authentic Documents, many of which were never before 
published. By Joseph Benson." This is the only Life of 
Fletcher which, in a separate form, has been circulated during 
the last seventy-eight years. 

Of course, during this long period of nearly fourscore 
years, many new facts and incidents concerning Fletcher 
have come to light ; and, among these new biographical 
materials, special mention must be made of the Fletcher 
MSS. deposited in the Wesleyan Mission House, London, 
in 1862. Since then, the Methodist "Committee on Book 
Affairs " has repeatedly expressed the opinion that a new 
Life of Fletcher ought to be prepared, and, at least, two of 
the foremost men in Methodism have been requested to 
undertake the work. One of the two is dead, and the other 
seems to have as much literary labour in hand as he is 
able to accomplish. Under such circumstances, I have had 
the temerity to attempt the task. 

I have carefully used all the biographical matter that I 
have found in the " Short Account " by Wesley ; in the 
Letters published by Melville Home ; in Gilpin's " Notes ; " 
in the Life by Benson ; in the Fletcher MSS., just mentioned ; 
in other MSS. belonging to myself ; in MSS. kindly lent to 
me ; and in all the Methodist and other publications relating 
to Fletcher with which I am acquainted. 

I have no artistic talent ; and if I had, I should not 



Preface. 



ix 



employ it in writing biographies. In such publications I 
am only desirous to see the man, not the artist's drapery. 
I want to know his doings, sayings, and sufferings, rather 
than to read philosophic discourses concerning them. My 
aim, therefore, from first to last, has been to let Fletcher 
speak for himself. His Letters are invaluable ; the man 
who can read them without being profited is greatly to be 
pitied. The extracts from his sermons show how the first 
Methodists used to preach. The chapters respecting the 
Calvinian controversy may, to some readers, be somewhat 
dry, but they could not be omitted, because that controversy 
was the great event in Fletcher's life, and hastened his death. 
Besides, it was by his publications on this subject that he 
rendered service to Wesley and the Methodist movement, 
which neither Wesley himself nor any other of Wesley's 
friends could have furnished. I have refrained from dis- 
cussing the truths which Fletcher's pen defended ; but I 
have said enough to indicate what the doctrines were which 
created Methodism, and which alone can perpetuate its 
spiritual life and power. 

The portrait of Fletcher is taken from an exceedingly 
scarce engraving, in the Methodist Museum, at Centenary 
Hall, London. 

I think I may say, without exposing myself to the charge 
of arrogance or conceit, that, in this volume, the reader will 
find all the facts of any importance that are known con- 
cerning Fletcher, and that here, more than in any previous 
publication, is illustrated the intellectual and saintly character 
of one of the holiest men that ever lived. 

L. TYERMAN. 

Stanhope House, Clapham Park, S.W. 
October 7, 1882. 



GENERAL CONTENTS. 



INTRODUCTION. 

PAGE 

Wesley requests Fletcher to be his successor — Others who might 
have been designated I — 3 

CHAPTER I. 

From Fletcher's Birth to his coming to England in 1752. 

Parentage — Birthplace — Early piety — Remarkable deliverances 
from danger — Education at Geneva — Removed to Lentzburg — 
Wishes to be a soldier 4 — 9 



CHAPTER II. 

From his coming to England to his Ordination, 1752 — 1757. 

Arrives in London— Admitted to Mr. Burchell's school — Becomes 
tutor to sons of Thomas Hill, Esq. — Letter to his brother Henry 
— Introduced to Methodists — His conversion — A millenarian — A 
Catechumen — Acquaintance with Mr. Vaughan — Richard Ed- 
wards, his class-leader — Letters to Wesley — His ordination . 10 — 27 



CHAPTER III. 
From His Ordination to his Settlement at Madeley, 
1757— 1760. 

A favourite among the first Methodists — Preaches in Shropshire — 
Letter to Wesley — Thomas Walsh — Letter to his class-leader 
— Introduced to Lady Huntingdon — Preaching to French prisoners 
— Letter to Charles Wesley — Letter to Sarah Ryan — Christian 
Perfection — Fletcher and his foes — Proposal to go to the West 
Indies — Death of Thomas Walsh — Letter to Charles Wesley — A 
Convert — Conversion of Mr. Richard Hill — Temptation — Letters 
to Charles Wesley — Dorothy Furley — Visits Lady Huntingdon — 
Her ladyship's proposal — Fletcher's first published sermon — Earl 
Ferrars — Glorious services at Everton — Choosing a benefice — 
Letters to Lady Huntingdon — Commencement of ministry at 
Madeley . . 28 — 60 



xii 



Contents. 



CHAPTER IV. 
First Two Years at Madeley, 1760 — 1762. page 
Madeley — Branded a Methodist — Increasing labours — Madeley 
Wood and Coalbrook Dale — Rev. Mr. Prothero's sermon — The 
publicans — Fletcher's first sermons at Madeley — Mary Matthews 
— Answers to an objection — "The Rock Church" — Letter to a 
Papist— Persecutions — Letter to Rev. Mr. Hutton — Testimony 
of Rev. Mr. Gilpin . ... . . . ; . . 61—83 

CHAPTER V. 
Three Quiet Successful Years. 1762 — 1765. 
Fanaticism among the London Methodists — Rules of Fletcher's 
Methodist Societies — A troublesome member — A quiet year — 
Reasons for and against matrimony — The furious butcher — Letters 
to Miss Hatton — Wesley's first visit to Madeley — Simplicity of 
living — Alexander Mather — -Fletcher at Breedon — Fletcher's first 
pastoral letter — Fletcher and his relatives .... 84 — 105 

CHAPTER VI. 
Two Years More. 1766 — 1767. 
Fletcher depressed — Rejoicing on account of other men's success — 
Letters to Miss Hatton and Miss Ireland — Thanks for a present — An 
excursion to Brighton, etc.— Pastoral letter — Miss Hatton dying 
— Letter to Whitefield — Lady Huntingdon at Madeley — Captain 
Scott — Fletcher in Yorkshire — Letter to Lady Huntingdon — Rev. 
Cradock Glascott — Trevecca College — Fletcher appointed chap- 
lain of the Earl of Buchan — James Glazebrook — "Manifestations 
of the Son of God " 106 — 130 

CHAPTER VII. 

Trevecca College : Visit to Switzerland, etc. 1768 — 1770. 
Joseph Easterbrook — Books for Trevecca College — Letter on Con- 
versation — Expulsion of six students at Oxford — Letter to White- 
field — Opening of Trevecca College — Letters to Mr. and Miss 
Ireland— Rev. John Jones — Mr. John Henderson, B.A. — First 
anniversary of Trevecca College — Rev. Walter Sellon — Anti- 
Popery sermon— Joseph Benson — Letter to Mr. Ireland— Visit 
to Switzerland 131 — 163 

CHAPTER VIII. 
Commencement of the Calvinian Controversy. 1770—1771. 
Letter to masters and students of Trevecca College — Fletcher at 
Trevecca College — Letter to Rev. David Simpson — Wesley's 
Doctrinal Minutes — Second anniversary of Trevecca College — 
Wesley's sermon on the death of Whitefield — Letter of Lady 
Glenorchy — Joseph Benson dismissed from Trevecca College — 
Fletcher's unpublished letter to Wesley — Fletcher resigns his 



Contents. 



xiii 



PAGE 

office at Trevecca — Important unpublished manuscript — The 
storm brewing — Shirley's Circular Letter — Fletcher's " First 
Check to Antinomianism " — Shirley's " Narrative" — Fletcher's 
Letter to Shirley — Fletcher's Vindication of Wesley's " Minutes " 

164—205 

CHAPTER IX. 
" Second Check to Antinomianism." 1771. 
Letters in the Gospel Magazine — Unpublished letter to Joseph 
Benson — Prevalent Antinomianism — Richard Hill's pamphlet 
respecting a conversation with a monk .... 206 — 217 

CHAPTER X. 
"Third Check to Antinomianism." 1772. 
Edward Elwall — Unpublished letter to Sellon — -Letter to the Dublin 
Methodists — Richard Hill's Five Letters — Fletcher's reply to 
them — Divine Grace given to all — Good men doing the Devil's 
work — Advices to Arminians 218 — 233 

CHAPTER XL 
"Fourth Check to Antinomianism." 1772. 
Richard Hill's "Review of all the Doctrines taught by the Rev. 
J. Wesley"— -Richard Hill's " Six Letters" to Fletcher— Row- 
land Hill's " Friendly Remarks" — " Logica Genevensis" — 
Wesley's "Remarks o?z Mr. Hill's Review" — Unpublished 
letter by John Pawson — Fletcher rebukes Rowland Hill — Ab- 
surdities of Calvinism — Free Will — Unpublished letter by Richard 
Hill to W T alter Sellon 234 — 253 

CHAPTER XII. 
"Appeal to Matter of Fact and Common Sense." 1772. 
Manuscript lost — Dedication — Doctrine of Original Sin — Colliers, 
bargemen, and iron-workers — England's favourite amusements 
— Ten inferences . 254 — 262 

CHAPTER XIII. 
Wesley's Designated Successor, etc., etc. 1773. 
Wesley requests Fletcher to be his successor — Fletcher's reply — 
Wesley respecting Fletcher and Whitefield — Samuel Bradburn 
visits Fletcher — Correspondence in 1773 — The penitent thief — 
The earthquake — Fletcher's sermon on it . . . . 263 — 278 

CHAPTER XIV. 
"The Finishing Stroke," etc. 1773. 
" The Finishing Stroke" — " The Farrago Double Distilled" — 
Berridge's " Christiaji World Unmasked" — Letters by Berridge 
— Richard Hill desiring peace — Richard Hill's " Three Letters" 
to Fletcher — " Creed for Arminians and Perfectionists" 279 — 293 



xiv 



Contents. 



CHAPTER XV. 
"Fifth Check to Antinomianism." 1774. page 
Toplady's letter to Ambrose Serle — " Logica Genevensis con- 
tinued'' — Remaining differences — Fletcher answering Berridge 
— Wesley on Fletcher's " Checks" — Lady Huntingdon wishes an 
interview with Fletcher— Fletcher's reply— Fletcher writing and 
weary. 294—301 

CHAPTER XVI. 
Further Publications in 1774. 

"Equal Check to Pharisaism and Antinomianism" — Doleful 
picture — Letter to Lady Huntingdon — Saving Faith — The Atha- 
nasian Creed — Letters to J. Benson and C. Wesley . . 302 — 311 



CHAPTER XVII. 
Publications in the Year 1775. 
" Equal Check to Pharisaism and Antinomianism continued'''' — 
' ' Scripture Scales " — ' ' The Fictitious and the Genuine Creed ' ' 
— The controversy has done Fletcher good — Rev. Thomas Reader 
visits Fletcher — Christian perfection — Letter to J. Benson — 
Wesley dangerously ill — Charles Wesley writes to Fletcher — 
Fletcher's reply — "Checks to Antinomianism" — Recon- 
ciliations — Dr. Coke's Letter to Fletcher — Letter to C. Wesley 

3 12 — 333 

CHAPTER XVIII. 
Publications in the Year 1776. 
Toplady — Fletcher's "Answer to the Vindication of the Decrees" 
— Toplady attacks Wesley — Fletcher answers Toplady — Review 
of six years' work — Rev. Caleb Evans' letter on Wesley's " Calm 
Address" — Fletcher's " Vindication of the Calm Address" 
— Mr. Evans' 11 Reply" to Fletcher's " Vindication" — Fletcher 
publishes "American Patriotism" — A Public Fast — "The 
Bible and the Sword" — The Monthly Review on Fletcher — 
Government desires to reward Fletcher .... 334 — 353 

CHAPTER XIX. 
Correspondence in 1776. 
Fletcher's labours and abstinence — Again objects to become 
Wesley's successor — An excursion with Wesley — Fletcher dis- 
couraged — Unpublished letter by J. Benson — Another work for 
the press — ' ' Driving Methodism and Still Mysticism — Fletcher 
dangerously ill — C. Wesley's hymn — Michael Onions — Letters 
— Fletcher apparently dying — An impromptu hymn — Wesley 
escorts Fletcher to London — Another excursion with Wesley — 
Second visit to Berridge — Fletcher and Venn at St. Neots— Charles 



Contents. 



xv 



PAGE 

Greenwood — Fletcher resides with him — Letter "to the parish- 
ioners of Madeley " 354 — 375 

CHAPTER XX. 
Publications and Correspondence in 1777. 
"The Doctrines of Grace and Justice eqitally Essential to the 
Pure Gosftel" — Fletcher a millenarian — " Bible Arminianism 
a?id Bible Calvmism" — "The Plan of Reco7iciliation'" — 
Another letter to his parishioners — Letter to W. Wase — Letters 
to Rev. V. Perronet and his daughter — -Fletcher visited by his 
friends — Fletcher's letter to his bishop — Charles Perronet dies 
— Fletcher's sojourn at Stoke Newington — Removes to Mr. 
Ireland's, at Brislington — Meets Henry Venn — Attends Wesley's 
Conference — Rev. David Lloyd — James Rogers visits Fletcher — 
Letter to Rev. V. Perronet — Unpublished letter to Miss Bosanquet 
— Lady Mary Fitzgerald — Letters to her and to Mrs. Thornton — 
Preparing to leave England — Farewell letters . . . 376 — 408 

CHAPTER XXI. 
A Long Retirement. 1778 — 1781. 
Journey to the south of France — Unpublished letter to Miss 
Bosanquet — Sermon concerning the New Birth — Letters to Rev. 
Mr. Greaves, W. Perronet, the Wesley Brothers, and Dr. Conyers 
— The Perronet estate in Switzerland— Unpublished letter to Mr. 
Power — Fletcher among children — Fletcher and his nephew — 
Messages to Madeley — Preaching at an execution — William 
Perronet joins Fletcher — A perilous journey — Letter to Mr. Ireland 
— Letters to Madeley — Other letters — Trials in Switzerland — 
An attack of rheumatism — Letter to his curate — National distress 
— Methodist meeting house at Madeley Wood — W. Perronet' s 
unpublished letter — In a "miserable lodging" — Loss of manu- 
scripts — Religion in Switzerland — Letters to Madeley — House of 
Fletcher's nativity — Letters to W. Wase, J. Owen, and M. Onions 
— Joins Mr. Ireland at Montpelier — Return to England — Thomas 
Rankin visits Fletcher at Brislington — Unpublished letter to Miss 
Bosanquet. . 409 — 450 

CHAPTER XXII. 
Literary Work done in Retirement. 
• ' La Grace et la Nature "— ' ' The Portrait of St. Paul. ' ' 45 1—459 

CHAPTER XXIII. 
The First Three Months after the Return to Madeley. 1781 
Affairs in confusion— Letter to Wesley— Rev. Cornelius Bayley— 
Correspondence with Miss Loxdale— Letters to Wesley and T. 
Rankin— Attends Wesley' s Conference at Leeds — Joseph Pescod' s 
letter — Fletcher the guest of Miss Bosanquet — A remarkable 
meeting at Leeds — Sanctification— Visits Sheffield . . 460 — 472 



xvi Contents. 



CHAPTER XXIV. 
Fletcher's Marriage. 1781. 
Letters to Miss Perronet and to Lady Mary Fitzgerald — History of 
Miss Bosanquet — Her Orphanage at Leyton — Her fortune and 
her debts — Her removal to Yorkshire — She turns farmer and 
maltster — Debts and difficulties — Fletcher proposes to marry her — 
Fletcher on celibacy — Unpublished love-letter — Unpublished 
letters to Miss Bosanquet' s uncle and her brother — Further 
correspondence — Settling affairs in Yorkshire — The wedding 
and letters respecting it 473 — 500 

CHAPTER XXV. 
Two Years of Married Life at Madeley. 1782— 1783. 
How Fletcher began the year 1782 — Husband and wife go to 
Madeley — Wesley visits them — William Tranter — Dr. Jobson and 
L. Tyerman at Madeley — Letter to author of "The Fool of 
Quality" — The Methodists of Dublin invite Fletcher and his 
wife to visit them — Mrs. Fletcher's letter to Wesley — Fletcher 
has an accident which disables him — Letter to Charles Wesley 
— A new poem — Nathaniel Gilbert and Melville Home — Letters 
to Mrs. Thornton and to John Valton — Fletcher and his wife 
visit the Dublin Methodists — Their successful labours — Un- 
published letter, thanking them for their services — Unpublished 
pamphlet by Fletcher — Fletcher begins Sunday schools at 
Madeley — Rev. H. Venn visits Fletcher .... 501 — 529 

CHAPTER XXVI. 
Last Days on Earth. 1784 — 1785. 
Dr. Coke and his friends begin the Methodist Missionary Society — 
Fletcher one of the first subscribers — Unpublished letter by 
Dr. Coke — Fletcher's unpublished letter to Rev. Mr. Bouverot 
— Dr. Priestley — Fletcher' s " Rational Vindication of the Catholic 
Faith'' 1 — Fletcher's " Socinianism Unscri^tural" — Fletcher's 
Millenarianism — Unpublished letters to Mrs. Smyth and to Lady 
Mary Fitzgerald — Fletcher at Wesley's Conference at Leeds — 
Sermons preached — Fletcher a peacemaker — Remarkable scene 
— Fletcher objected to — Enoch Wood and Fletcher's discourse 
on Wesley's bust — Fletcher in his " Sentry Box " — Letter to his 
god-son — Rev. Charles Simeon visits Fletcher — Modified mil- 
lenarianism— Letters to Rev. Peard Dickenson and Rev. Melville 
Home — Mrs. Fletcher ill of fever — Letter to Lady Maty Fitzgerald 
— Fletcher ill of fever — Mrs. Fletcher's account of him — Last 
service in Madeley Church — Dying — Death and burial — Mrs. 
Fletcher's letter to C. Wesley — Wesley preaches Fletcher's 
funeral sermon — Testimonies concerning Fletcher — Inscription 
on his tombstone — Inscription on the tablet in City Road 
Chapel 530—575 



IX TR D UCTION. 



EIGHTEEN years before his death, Wesley wrote the 
following letter to Fletcher, Vicar of Madeley — 

"January, 1773. 
" Dear Sir, — What an amazing work has God wrought in these 
kingdoms, in less than forty years ! And it not only continues, but 
increases, throughout England, Scotland, and Ireland ; nay, it has lately 
spread into New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Maryland, and Carolina. 
But the wise men of the world say, 1 When Mr. Wesley drops, then all 
this is at an end ! ' And so it surely will, unless, before God calls him 
hence, one is found to stand in his place. For, ov< ayadov TroXvicoipavtr). 
Eis Koipavos earco. I see more and more, unless there be one Trpoecrrcos, the 
work can never be carried on. The body of the preachers are not 
united : nor will any part of them submit to the rest ; so that either 
there must be one to preside over all, or the work will indeed come 
to an end. 

" But who is sufficient for these things ? qualified to preside both over 
the preachers and people ? He must be a man of faith and love, and 
one that has a single eye to the advancement of the kingdom of God. 
He must have a clear understanding ; a knowledge of men and things, 
particularly of the Methodist doctrine and discipline ; a ready utterance ; 
diligence and activity, with a tolerable share of health. There must be 
added to these favour with the people, with the Methodists in general. 
For, unless God turn their eyes and their hearts towards him, he will be 
quite incapable of the work. He must likewise have some degree of 
learning, because there are many adversaries, learned as well as un- 
learned, whose mouths must be stopped. But this cannot be done 
unless he be able to meet them on their own ground. 

" But has God provided one so qualified ? Who is he ? Thou art 
the man ! God has given you a measure of loving faith, and a single 
eye to His glory. He has given you some knowledge of men and things, 
particularly of the old plan of Methodism. You are blessed with some 
health, activity, and diligence, together with a degree of learning. And 
to these He has lately added, by a way none could have foreseen, favour 
both with the preachers and the whole people. Come out in the name 

I 



2 Wesley 1 s Designated Successor. 



of God ! Come to the help of the Lord against the mighty ! Come 
while I am alive and capable of labour ! 

' Dum stiver est Lachesi quod torqueat, et ftedibus me 
Porto meis, nullo dextram subeunte bacillo' 

Come while I am able, God assisting, to build you up in faith, to ripen 
your gifts, and to introduce you to the people. Nil tanti. What 
possible employment can you have, which is of so great importance ? 

"But you will naturally say, 'I am not equal to the task; I have 
neither grace nor gifts for such an employment.' You say true ; it is 
certain you have not. And who has ? But do you not know Him who 
is able to give them ? perhaps not at once, but rather day by day : 
as each is, so shall your strength be. > But this implies,' you may say, 
' a thousand crosses, such as I feel I am not able to bear.' You are 
not able to bear them now, and they are not now come. Whenever 
they do come, will He not send them in due number, weight, and 
measure ? And will they not all be for your profit, that you may be a 
partaker of His holiness ? 

"Without conferring, therefore, with flesh and blood, come and 
strengthen the hands, comfort the heart, and share the labour of 
" Your affectionate friend and brother, 

"John Wesley." 1 

In all respects, Wesley's letter is remarkable. He wished 
Methodism to be perpetuated ; but he was convinced that 
this could not be done unless the ruling and administrative 
power could be confided, not to the Conference, or to a 
committee of the Conference, but to a single person. His 
description of the necessary qualifications of such a ruler 
is worthy of being studied. Especially ought Methodist 
preachers and the Methodist people all over the world, and 
in all generations, to notice the fact that Wesley's first and 
pre-eminent qualification was that he who "presided both 
over the preachers and people must be a man of faith and 
love, and one who had a single eye to the advancement of 
the kingdom of God." For thirty-eight years, since he left 
the Oxford University, Wesley's labours had been herculean 
and incessant. His health had begun to fail ; so much so, 
that, only a few months before he wrote to Fletcher, his 
friends in London had become alarmed by signs of age and 
debility, and had contributed to provide him a carnage in 



1 Dr. Whitehead's "Life of Wesley," vol. ii., p. 355. 



Introduction. 



3 



which to pursue those extensive and laborious journeys, 
which hitherto he had made on horseback. In Edinburgh, 
he had undergone a medical examination by Dr. Monro, 
Dr. Gregory, and Dr. Hamilton, after which he wrote: "1772, 
May 1 8. They satisfied me what my disorder was ; and 
told me there was but one method of cure. Perhaps but 
one natural one; but I think God has more than one method 
of healing either the soul or the body." 

Under such circumstances, it is not surprising that Wesley 
wished to have in training his successor ; and he seems to 
have had no difficulty in nominating him. His brother 
Charles was living, and, among his itinerant preachers, there 
was a small band of remarkable men, including Alexander 
Mather, Thomas Olivers, George Shadford, John Pawson, 
Thomas Hanby, William Thompson, Thomas Taylor, John 
Nelson, Thomas Rankin, Christopher Hopper, Joseph Benson, 
George Story, Thomas Rutherford, Richard Whatcoat, Joseph 
Pilmore, Francis Asbury, and others ; but all these were 
passed over, and the man he desired and nominated to be 
his successor was the saintly Swiss, John William de la 
Flechere, Vicar of Madeley. 

The character and the life of such a man must be worthy 
of attention. Wesley, a keen judge of men, thought him 
qualified to be the " TrpoecrTOis" of the Methodists. His 
reply to Wesley's proposal need not be inserted here. The 
position was the highest Wesley could offer him. Was he 
worthy of it ? Let the reader of the following pages form 
his own opinion. Enough has been said to justify the present 
attempt to delineate the man. 



4 



Wesley s Designated Successor, 



CHAPTER I. 

FROM FLETCHER'S BIRTH TO HIS COMING 
TO ENGLAND 

IN 1752. 

JEAN GUILLAUME DE LA FLECHERE was a 
descendant of one of the most respectable families in 
Switzerland ; a family, in fact, which was a branch of an 
earldom of Savoy. After his marriage, Fletcher's wife found 
in his desk a seal. " Is this yours ? " she asked. " Yes," 
replied the poor country parson ; " but I have not used it for 
many years." " Why ? " " Because it bears a coronet, nearly 
such as is the insignia of your English dukes. Were I to 
use that seal, it might lead to frivolous inquiries about my 
family, and subject me to the censure of valuing myself on 
such distinctions." 1 

For some time the father of John Fletcher was a general 
officer in the French army, but, on his marriage, he retired 
from the service. Later in life, he accepted a colonelcy in 
the militia of Switzerland. 

John, his father's youngest son, was born at Nyon, on 
September 12th, 1729. His birthplace was a fine old 
mansion, that had withstood the storms of centuries, and, like 
many of the ancient houses in Switzerland, was entered by 
a spiral stone staircase, which opened into a spacious hall. 
"The house where I was born," said Fletcher, "has one of 
the finest prospects in the world. We have a shady wood, 
near the lake, where I can ride in the cool all the day, and 
enjoy the singing of a multitude of birds." From one of the 
windows of Fletcher's ancestral home, there was a magnificent 



Cox's "Life of Fletcher," p. 140. 



Anecdotes of Early Life, 



5 



view of hill and dale, vineyards and pastures, stretching right 
away to the distant Jura mountains. At a few paces from 
the chateau, there was a terrace overlooking Lake Leman, 
with its clear blue waters and its gracefully-curved and richly- 
wooded bays. On the right hand, at a distance of fifteen 
miles, was Geneva, the cradle of the Reformation ; on the 
left, Lausanne and the celebrated castle of Chillon. High 
up in the heavens were Alpine peaks, embosoming scenes the 
most beautiful ; and, not far away, was Mont Blanc, robed 
in perpetual and unsullied snow. 

Not much is known of the early life of Fletcher. A few 
anecdotes concerning him have been preserved by his bio- 
graphers, and these shall be given in as brief a form as 
possible. 

Wesley relates that Fletcher, " in his early childhood, had 
much of the fear of God, and great tenderness of conscience." 
One day, when he was about seven years of age, his nurse, 
who had occasion to reprove him, said, " You are a naughty 
boy. Do you not know that the devil is to take away all 
naughty children ? " The maid's remark troubled him. He 
fell upon his knees and began to pray, and did not cease till 
he believed God had forgiven him. 

His filial obedience was exemplary, but, on one occasion, 
he, undesignedly, offended his mother, whom he dearly loved. 
The good lady was speaking in too warm a manner to one 
of the family. Young Fletcher turned a reproving eye upon 
her. She was much displeased with what she conceived to 
be unfilial forwardness, and punished him. With a look of 
tender affection, he meekly replied, " When I am smitten 
on one cheek, and especially by a hand I love so well, I am 
taught to turn the other also." The mother's indignation 
was instantly turned into admiration of her boy. 1 

While yet a youth, he had several near escapes from an 
untimely death. Once, when walking upon a high wall en- 
closing his father's garden, his foot slipped, and he must have 
been killed had he not fallen into " a large quantity of fresh- 
made mortar." 

At another time, when swimming by himself in deep 



1 Gilpin's " Account of Fletcher." 



6 Wesley's Designated Successor, 



water, a strong ribbon, which bound his hair, became loose, 
twisted about his leg, and tied him " as it were neck and 
heels." " I strove," said he, " with all my strength to dis- 
engage myself, but to no purpose. No person being within 
call, I gave myself up for lost ; but when I had ceased 
struggling, the ribbon loosed itself." 

On another occasion, he and four other young gentlemen 
agreed to swim to a rocky island, five miles from the shore. 
Young Fletcher and one of his adventurous friends succeeded 
in reaching the island, but the cliff was so steep and smooth 
that they found it impossible to scale its heights. After 
swimming round the islet again and again, they concluded 
that their being drowned was inevitable. Immediately after, 
however, they discovered a place of safety ; and, in due time, 
a boat arrived and took them home. The other three, when 
only half way to the island, were rescued by a boat just as 
they were sinking. 

A still more remarkable deliverance from a watery grave 
was the following : Fletcher was a practised swimmer, and 
once plunged into a river broader than the Thames at London 
Bridge, and very rapid. " The water was extremely rough, 
and poured along like a galloping horse." He endeavoured 
to swim against it, but in vain, and was hurried far from 
home. When almost exhausted, he looked for a resting- 
place, feeling he must either escape from the water or sink. 
With great difficulty, he approached the shore, but found it 
" so ragged and sharp that he saw, if he attempted to land 
there, he would be torn to pieces." In his direful plight, he 
recommenced swimming. " At last," says he, " despairing of 
life, I was cheered by the sight of a fine smooth creek, into 
which I was swiftly carried by a violent stream. A building 
stood directly across it, which I then did not know to be a 
powder-mill. The last thing I can remember was the striking 
of my breast against one of the piles whereon it stood. I 
then lost my senses, and knew nothing more till I rose on 
the other side of the mill. When I came to myself, I was 
in a calm, safe place, perfectly well, without any soreness or 
weariness at all. Nothing was amiss but the distance of my 
clothes, the stream having driven me five miles from the 
place where I left them. Many persons gladly welcomed 



Anecdotes of Early Life. 



1 



me on shore ; one gentleman in particular, who said, ' I 
looked at my watch when you went under the mill, and 
again when you rose on the other side, and the time of 
your being immerged among the piles was exactly twenty 
minutes.' " 

Fletcher passed the early part of his life at Nyon, where 
he began his education. With his two brothers, he was then 
removed to the university of Geneva, where he was dis- 
tinguished equally by his superior abilities and his uncommon 
diligence. The two first prizes for which he stood a candidate 
he carried away from a number of competitors, several of 
whom were nearly related to the professors. He allowed 
himself but little time either for recreation, refreshment, or 
sleep. After confining himself closely to his studies all day, 
he would frequently consume the greater part of the night 
in making notes of what he had found in the course of his 
reading worthy of observation. 

After quitting Geneva, he was sent by his father to Lentz- 
burg, in the canton of Berne, where, besides pursuing his 
other studies, he acquired the German language. On his 
return to Nyon, he studied Hebrew, and improved his know- 
ledge of mathematics. 

From early childhood, Fletcher loved and served his Maker. < 
/He himself relates : "I think it was when I was seven years 
\ of age, that I first began to feel the love of God shed abroad 

(in my heart, and that I resolved to give myself up to Him, 
and to the service of His Church, if ever I should be fit for 
it ; but the corruption which is in the world, and that which/ 
was in my own heart, soon weakened, if not erased, those! 
first characters which grace had written upon it." 

" From a child thou hast known the holy Scriptures," 
wrote St. Paul to Timothy. The same might have been 
said to Fletcher. His early acquaintance with inspired truth 
guarded him, on the one hand, from the snares of infidelity, 
and preserved him, on the other, from many of the vices 
peculiar to youth. It also qualified and emboldened him to 
reprove sin, and, w r ith becoming modesty, to remonstrate with 
sinners. To illustrate this, his biographers relate an incident 
which occurred when he was only fourteen years of age. A 
lady and her three sons visited his sister, Madame de Botens. 



s 



Wesley 1 's Designated Successor. 



The sons quarrelled, and the mother uttered a hasty impre- 
cation. Young Fletcher was shocked, and, instantly starting 
from his chair, began to expound and enforce the apostolic 
admonition, " Provoke not your children to wrath," etc. ; and 
then reminded his astonished auditress that her imprecation 
might be realized ; a vaticination that soon became a fact ; 
for, on the same day, the lady embarked upon the lake, was 
overtaken with a tremendous storm, and was brought to the 
point of perishing; and, soon after, two of her sons were 
drowned ; and the third was crushed to death at one of the 
gates of Geneva. 

Fletcher had wished to be a Christian minister, and his 
parents had wished the same concerning him ; but, soon 
after the occurrence just related, his plans of life were entirely 
altered. He writes : " I went through my studies with a 
design of entering into orders ; but, afterwards, upon serious 
reflection, feeling I was unequal to so great a burden, and 
disgusted by the necessity I should be under to subscribe 
the doctrine of predestination, I yielded to the desire of my 
friends, who would have me go into the army." 1 

The friends here mentioned did not include his parents, 
for they were strongly opposed to his turning soldier ; but 
now, nearly at the age of twenty, his theological reading 
gave place to the studying of the works of Cohorn and 
Vauban, the great military engineers. At this time, Portugal 
was sending troops to Brazil, to defend its interests there. 
Against the remonstrances of his parents, Fletcher went to 
Lisbon, there gathered a company of his own countrymen, 
accepted a captain's commission, and engaged to serve the 
Portuguese on board a man-of-war, which was preparing with 
all speed to sail to the Brazilian coasts. ^Meanwhile, he 
wrote to his parents for a considerable sum of money, by 
means of which he expected to make a small fortune in the 
country he was about to visit. "They refused him roughly: 
unmoved by this, he determined to go without the cash." 
Whilst waiting, however, for the ship to sail, the maid, attend- 
ing him at breakfast, let the tea-kettle fall upon his leg, and 
so scalded him, that he had to keep his bed. " During that 



1 Arminian Magazine, 1794, p. 219. 



Anecdotes of Early Life, 



9 



time," says Wesley, " the ship sailed for Brazil ; but it was 
observed that the ship was heard of no more." 

Wesley continues : " How is this reconcileable with the 
account which has been given of his piety when he was a 
child ? Very easily : it only shows that his piety declined 
while he was at the university. And this is too often the 
case of other youths in our own universities." 

Fletcher returned to Nyon, but his military ardour was 
not abated ; and, being informed that his uncle, then a 
colonel in the Dutch service, had procured a commission 
for him, he joyfully set out for Flanders. Here, however, he 
was again defeated in his purpose to become a soldier. Peace 
was concluded ; his uncle died ; his hopes were blasted ; 
and the military profession was abandoned. 

This, in substance, is all that is known of Fletcher, until 
he came to England, as Wesley says, in 1752. 



io Wesley' 's Designated Successor. [1752. 



CHAPTER II. 



FROM HIS COMING TO ENGLAND TO HIS 



FTER the frustration of his hopes in Flanders, Fletcher, 



accompanied by other young gentlemen, embarked 
for England, for the purpose of acquiring the English 
language. At the Custom House in London they were 
treated with the utmost surliness. Of course their port- 
manteaus were examined, — never a pleasant operation, but 
sometimes less politely done than at others. In addition to 
this, their letters of recommendation were taken from them, 
on the alleged ground that " all letters must be sent by 
post." They went to an inn, where they encountered an- 
other difficulty. Unable to speak English, they were at a 
loss how to exchange their foreign into English money. 
Fletcher, going to the door, heard a well-dressed Jew talking 
French. The difficulty was explained ; and the Jew replied, 
" Give me your money, and I will get it changed." Fletcher, 
without the least suspicion, handed the gentleman his purse, 
containing £go. Telling his friends what he had done, they 
exclaimed, " Your money's gone." His friends were wrong. 
Before breakfast was ended the honest Jew returned, and 
gave to Fletcher the full amount in English coin. 

To assist him in the acquisition of the English language, 
Fletcher had been recommended to a Mr. Burchelr, who kept 
a boarding-school at South Mimms, a village about four 
miles from Hatfield, in Hertfordshire. He was admitted 
into this establishment. Soon after, it was removed to 
Hatfield, whither he also went. Here he remained with 
Mr. Burchell about eighteen months, and pursued his studies 
with great diligence. He frequently visited some of the 



ORDINA TION 



1752 TO 1757. 




Age 23.] 



Fletcher' 's Conversion. 



first families in Hatfield ; and, by his easy and genteel 
behaviour, and his sweetness of temper, he gained the affec- 
tionate esteem of all who knew him. 

On leaving Mr. Burchell's academy, Fletcher was recom- 
mended by Mr. Dechamps, a French minister, to Thomas 
Hill, Esq., of Tern Hall, in Shropshire, as tutor to his two 
sons. 1 It was whilst in the service of this gentleman that 
Fletcher was converted. The following is an extract from 
one of his letters to his brother Henry, at Nyon : — 

"The news of your promotion has given me great pleasure. I feel 
.a sincere satisfaction in the diligence with which you devote yourself to 
the good of society, and that you prefer a life of labour to one of indolent 
and useless inactivity. We may be instruments of some good in any 
condition of human life, if we faithfully fulfil its duties ; and the more 
difficult our station may prove to be, the more of satisfaction is likely 
to result from acquitting ourselves well in it. The ambition which 
springs from this principle has nothing censurable in it, provided that 
a view to the glory of God be its motive. I delight to think that the 
advancement of the Divine glory is your principal end ; in which case, 
as your influence extends over the whole city, the good you do may be 
very great. You will find a thousand opportunities of glorifying God 
by your diligence, integrity, and disinterestedness. Endeavour to find 
or make occasions of this sort ; seize on them eagerly, and shrink not 
from entering into the minutest details, when the object is to do good 
to the bodies or souls of your neighbours. Imitate, as far as circum- 
stances will admit, the charity of Christ ; who went about doing good, 
and disdained not to converse with the most wretched. I dwell on this 
the more particularly, because the vanity and pride which reign in our 
native town appear to me directly opposed to the spirit of charity. If 
you rise above these, you will conduct yourself as a Christian, whose 
sole object is to advance the glory of God ; and who thinks little of the 
esteem of man, except as it may place him in a position to do more 
good in the world. 

"Your recreations, of which you have given me a brief sketch, are 
doubtless innocent, especially if they occupy no more of your time than 
a due attention to health, and the wants of our nature demand. Although 
you have often reproached me with being too austere, I am far from 
thinking that religion forbids the use of innocent recreations ; because, 
being indifferent in themselves, they become useful when they are neces- 
sary for the relaxation of the body or the mind. I am not at all shocked 



1 The elder of these sons died on coming of age ; the younger became 
M.P. for Shrewsbury, and afterwards for Shropshire. In 1784, he took 
his seat in the House of Lords, as Baron Berwick. The title still exists. 
The old Tern Hall has long been called Attingham House. — Debrett's 
"Peerage" and Wesley's and Benson's " Lives" of Fletcher. 



Wesley^ s Designated Successor. [1754 



at the tradition which informs us that St. John sometimes amused him- 
self with a partridge which he had tamed. Happy are they who, as far 
as they are able, endeavour to turn their own recreations to the advan- 
tage of others, which may certainly, if not always, yet sometimes, be 
done. I sometimes polish shells with Mr. Hill, out of compliance with 
his wishes. This used formerly to put me in a bad humour, on account 
of the loss of time it occasioned. But I begin to find that pious thoughts 
may sanctify an occupation as insignificant as even this, and that a 
renouncing of one's own will from compliance with that of others is not 
without its utility. 

"I am now going to reply to that part of your letter in which you 
testify your surprise at the change which has taken place in my manner 
of thinking, a change which appears to have struck you in the last 
letters which I wrote to my father. You cry out against the severity of 
the principles which I have laid down ; and add that, without being a 
prophet, you boldly predict my giving way before long to enthusiasm 
and all manner of bodily austerities, led on by the principles I have 
assumed. 

"I am the less astonished, my dear brother, that ^you should thus 
speak, because it is the language of ninety-nine Christians of the present 
day out of every hundred, and because I myself for a long time thought 
like you on this point. In a certain sense, indeed, I always thought 
highly of religion, though at the bottom no one perhaps had less of 
it than I. My infancy was vicious, and my youth still more so.^At ( 
eighteen I fell into what may properly be termed 'enthusiasm;' for 
though I lived in many habitual sins, yet because I was regularly pre- 
sent at public worship, not only on the Sunday, but during the week, I i 
imagined myself religious J I made long prayers morning and evening, 
( as well as frequently during the day. I devoted to the study of the 
(prophecies, and to books of a religious character, all the time I could 
\spare from my other studies. 

' ' My feelings were easily excited, but my heart was rarely affected, 
and I was destitute of a sincere love to God, and consequently to my 
neighbour. All my hopes of salvation rested on my prayers, devotions, 
and a certain habit of saying, ' Lord, I am a great sinner ; pardon me 
for the sake of Jesus Christ.' In the meantime I was ignorant of the 
fall and ruin in which every man is involved, the necessity of a Redeemer, 
and the way by which we may be rescued from the fall by receiving 
Christ with a living faith. I should have been quite confounded if any 
one had asked me the following questions : ' Do you know that you are 
dead in Adam ? Do you live to yourself ? Do you live in Christ and 
for Christ ? Does God rule in your heart ? Do you experience that 
peace of God which passeth all understanding? Is the love of God 
shed abroad in your heart by the Holy Spirit ?' I repeat it, my dear 
brother, these questions would have astonished and confounded me, as 
they must every one who relies on the form of religion, and neglects its 
power and influence. 
" My religion, alas ! having a different foundation from that which is 



Age 25.] 



Fletcher* s Conversion. 



13 



in Christ, was built merely on the sand; and.no sooner did the winds and 
floods arise, than it tottered and fell to ruins. I formed an acquaintance 
with some Deists, at first with the design of converting them, and after- 
wards with the pretence of thoroughly examining their sentiments. But 
my heart, like that of Balaam, was not right with God. He abandoned 
me, and I enrolled myself in their party. A considerable change took 
place in my deportment. Before I had a form of religion, and now I 
lost it ; but as to the state of my heart, it was precisely the same. I did 
not remain many weeks in this state ; the Good Shepherd sought after 
me, a wandering sheep. Again I became professedly a Christian; that 
is, I resumed a regular attendance at church and the communion, and 
offered up frequent prayers in the name of Jesus Christ. There were 
also in my heart some sparks of true love to God, and some germs of 
genuine faith; but a connection with worldly characters, and an undue 
anxiety to promote my secular interests, prevented the growth of these 
Christian graces. Had I now been asked on what I founded my hopes 
of salvation, I should have replied, that I was not without some religion ; 
that, so far from doing harm to any one, I wished well to all the world; 
that I resisted my passions ; that I abstained from pleasures in which I 
had once indulged; and that if I was not so religious as some others, 
it w T as because such a degree of religion was unnecessary; that heaven 
might be obtained on easier terms ; and that if I perished, the destruc- 
tion of the generality of Christians was inevitable, which I could not 
believe was consistent with the mercy of God. 

" I was in this state of mind when a dream, which I could not but 
consider as a warning from God, aroused me from my security." 

At great length Fletcher here relates his dream respecting 
the final judgment, and then continues : — 

''For some days, I was so dejected and harassed in mind as to be 
unable to apply myself to anything. While in this state, I attempted to 
copy some music, when a servant entered my chamber. Having noticed 
my employment, he said, ' I am surprised, Sir, that you, who know so 
many things, should forget what day this is, and that you should not 
be aware that the Lord's day should be sanctified in a very different 
manner.' 

"The sterling character of the man, his deep humility, his zeal for 
the glory of God, his love to his neighbours, and especially his patience, 
which enabled him to receive with joy the insults he met with from the 
whole family for Christ's sake, and, above all, the secret energy which 
accompanied his words, deeply affected me, and convinced me more 
than ever of my real state. I was convinced, as it had been told me in 
my dream, that I was not renewed in the spirit of my mind, that I was 
not conformed to the image of God, and that without this the death of 
Christ would be of no avail for my salvation." 2 



1 The long letter from which the foregoing is extracted was first 
published in 1826, in a " Life of Fletcher " in the French language, and 



14 Wesley* s Designated Successor. [1754- 



About this period of his history, Fletcher seems to have 
become acquainted with the Methodists. Wesley says: — 

" I have heard two very different accounts of the manner wherein he 
had the first notice of the people called Methodists ; but I think it reason- 
able to prefer to any other that which I received from his own mouth. 
This was as follows : — 

"When Mr. Hill went up to London to attend the Parliament, he 
took his family and Mr. Fletcher with him. While they stopped at St. 
Albans, he walked out into the town, and did not return till they were 
set out for London. A horse being left for him, he rode after, and over- 
took them in the evening. Mr. Hill asking him why he stayed behind, 
he said, 'As I was walking, I met with a poor old woman, who talked 
so sweetly of Jesus Christ that I knew not how the time passed away.' 
' I shall wonder,' said Mrs. Hill, ' if our tutor does not turn Methodist 
by-and-by.' 'Methodist, Madame!' said he, 'pray, what is that?' 
She replied, ' Why, the Methodists are a people that do nothing but 
pray; they are praying all day and all night.' 'Are they?' said he; 
' then, by the help of God, I will find them out.' He did find them out 
not long after, and was admitted into the society; and from this time, 
whenever he was in town, he met in Mr. Richard Edwards's class. This 
he found so profitable to his soul that he lost no opportunity of meeting ; 
and he retained a peculiar regard for Mr. Edwards till the day of his 
death." 1 

It was not, however, in Mr. Edwards's class that Fletcher 
found peace with God. A few months after his decease, 
a 1 2 mo. pamphlet of sixty-four pages was published by his 
widow, entitled " A Letter to Mons. H. L. de la Flechere, 
Assessor Ballival of Nyon, in the Canton of Berne, Switzer- 
land, on the Death of his Brother, the Reverend John William 
de la Flechere, Twenty-five Years Vicar of Madeley, Shrop- 
shire." In that letter it is stated, that, "from the time he 
heard the Methodists, he became more and more conscious 
that some inward change was necessary to make him happy. 
He now began to ' strive with the utmost diligence according 
to his light, hoping by much doing to render himself accept- 
able to God.' But, one day, hearing a sermon preached by a 
clergyman, whose name was Green, he was convinced he did 



printed at Lausanne. In the same year, Mr. Benson printed it as an 
appendix to the ninth edition of his " Life of Fletcher." In 1839, it was 
inserted in the Wesleyan Methodist Magazine. The extract is partly 
taken from Benson's translation and partly from that in the magazine. 
1 Wesley's "Life of Fletcher," p. 17. 



Age 25.] Narrative of Fletcher* s Conversion. 15 



not understand the nature of saving faith. ' Is it possible,' 
said he, 'that I who have always been accounted so religious, 
who have made divinity my study, and received the premium 
of piety (so called) from the university for my writings on 
divine subjects, — is it possible that I am yet so ignorant as 
not to know what faith is ? ' But the more he examined, the 
more he was convinced of the momentous truth. He now 
became sensible of inbred sin, and sought, by the most 
rigorous austerities, to conquer an evil nature ; but the more 
he strove, the more he saw and felt that all his soul was sin." 

Mrs. Fletcher continues the narrative of his conversion by 
giving the following extract from his diary : — 

" T 755- J anu ary 12. — I received the sacrament, though my heart 
was as hard as a flint. The following day, I felt the tyranny of sin more 
than ever, and an uncommon coldness in my religious duties. I felt the 
burden of my corruptions heavier than ever. The more I prayed for 
conquest over sin, the more I was conquered. The thoughts which en- 
grossed my mind were generally these : I am undone. I have wandered 
from God. I have trampled under foot the frequent convictions God has 
been pleased to work upon my heart. Instead of going straight to 
Christ, I have lost my time in fighting against sin with the dim light of 
reason, and the use of the means of grace. V^Hfear my notions of Christ 
are only speculative, and do not reach the heart. \ I never had faith, t 
and without faith it is impossible to please God. '' Then every thought, 
word, and work of mine have only been sin and wickedness before God, 
though ever so specious before men. All my righteousness is as filthy 
rags. I am a very devil, though of an inferior sort, and if I am not 1 
renewed before I go hence, hell will be my portion to all eternity. 
( "When I saw that all my endeavours availed nothing towards my 

/ conquering sin, I almost resolved to sin on, and to go at last to hell. 

/ But, I remember, there was a sort of sweetness even in the midst of this 
abominable thought. If I go to hell, said I, I will still love God there; 
and since I cannot be an instance of His mercy in heaven, I will be an 
instance of His justice among the devils ; and if I put forth His glory 
one way or the other, I am content. 

"But I soon recovered the ground I had lost. Christ died for alt, 
thought I ; then He died for me ; and, as I sincerely desire to be His, 
He will surely take me to Himself. He will surely let me know before 
I die that He died for me. But then, I thought, this may only be in 
my dying hour, and that is a long time to wait. But I answered thus : 
My Saviour was above thirty-three years working out my salvation ; let 
me wait for Him as long, and then I may talk of impatience. Does 
God owe me anything ? Is He bound to time and place ? Do I deserve 
anything at His hands but damnation ? 

" So I went on, sinning and repenting, and sinning again; but still 



1 6 Wesley* s Designated Successor. [1755- 



calling on God's mercy through Christ. V. I was now beat out of all my 
strongholds of pride. ? I felt my helplessness, and lay at the foot of the 
throne of grace. I cried, though coldly, yet I believe sincerely, 1 Lord, 
save me ! Give me justifying faith in Thy blood ! Cleanse me from my 
sins ! ' I seldom went to private prayer, but I thought, ' Perhaps this 
is the happy hour when I shall prevail with God ; ' but still I was dis- 
appointed. 

"On Sunday, January 19, 1755, I heard an excellent sermon on, 
' Being justified by faith, we have peace with God, through our Lord 
Jesus Christ.' I heard it attentively, but my heart was not moved. I 
was only more convinced that I was an unbeliever — that I was not 
justified by faith — and that I should never till then have peace with God. 
The hymn after the sermon suited the subject that had been treated of, 
but I could not join in singing it. I sat mourning, whilst others rejoiced 
in the Lord their Saviour. 

" The following day, I begged of God to show me all the wickedness 
of my heart, and to fit me for His mercy. I besought Him to increase 
my convictions, for I was afraid I did not mourn enough for my sins. 
But I found relief in Mr. Wesley's Journal, where I learned that we 
should not build on what we feel ; but that we should go to Christ with 
all our sins and all our hardness of heart. 

"On January 21, I began to write a confession of my sins, misery, 
and helplessness, together with a resolution to seek Christ even unto 
death ; but, my business calling me away, I had no heart to go on with 
it. In the evening, I read the Scriptures, and found a sort of pleasure 
in seeing a picture of my wickedness so exactly drawn in the third 
chapter of the Epistle to the Romans, and that of my condition in the 
seventh ; and now I felt some hope that God would finish in me the 
work He had begun. 

"On Thursday, January 23, my fast-day, Satan beset me hard. I 
sinned grievously, and almost gave up all hope ; I mourned deeply, but 
with a heart as hard as ever. I was on the brink of despair, and yet 

continued to fall into sin. In the evening, I went to my friend, Mr. B , 

and told him something of my state. He strove to administer comfort, 
but it did not suit my light. When we parted, he gave me some advice 
which suited me better. ' God,' said he, 'loves you, and if He denies 
you anything, it is for your good. You deserve nothing at His hands ; 
wait then patiently for Him, and never give up your hope.' I went 
home resolved to follow this advice, though I should stay till death. 

" I had proposed to meet the Lord the following Sunday at His table, 
and therefore looked out a sacramental hymn. I learned it by heart, 
and prayed it over many times, and then went to bed, commending 
myself to God with rather more hope and peace than I had felt for some 
time. But Satan waked while I slept. I thought I committed that 
night in my sleep grievous and abominable sins. I awoke amazed and 
confounded, and rising with a detestation of the corruption of my senses 
and imagination, I fell upon my knees, and prayed with more faith and 
less wanderings than usual, and afterwards set about my business with 



Age 25.] Further Account of Fletcher' *s Conversion. 17 



an uncommon cheerfulness. It was not long before I was tempted to 
fall into my besetting sin, but I found myself a new creature. My soul 
was not even ruffled. Having withstood two or three temptations, and 
feeling peace in my soul through the whole of them, I began to think it 
was the Lord's doing. Afterwards it was suggested to me that it was 
great presumption for such a sinner to hope for such a mei^cy. I prayed 
I might not be permitted to fall into a delusion; but the more I prayed, 
the more I saw it was real ;\£or though sin stirred all the day long, I 
always overcame it in the name of the Lord. 

" In the evening I read some of the experiences of God's children, 
and found my case agreed with theirs, and suited the sermon I had 
heard on Justifying Faith. I called on the Lord for perseverance and 
an increase of faith, for still I felt some fear lest this should be all delu- 
sion. Having continued my supplication till near one in the morning, 
I then opened my Bible, and fell on these words, ' Cast thy burden on 
the Lord, and He shall sustain thee. He will not suffer the righteous 
to be moved.' Filled with joy, I fell again on my knees to beg of God 
that I might always cast my burden upon Him. I took up my Bible 
again, and fell on these words, ' I will be with thee ; I will not fail thee, 
neither forsake thee; fear not, neither be dismayed.' My hope was 
now greatly increased, and I thought I saw myself conqueror over sin, 
hell, and all manner of affliction. 

"With this beautiful promise I shut my Bible, and as I shut it I cast 
my eye on the words, ' Whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, I will do 
it.' So having asked perseverance and grace to serve God till death, 
I went cheerfully to take my rest." 

Such is Fletcher's own account of his conversion. His 
widow added the following : — 

" I subjoin what I have heard him speak concerning this time. He 
still pleaded with the Lord to take a fuller possession of his heart, and 
to give a fuller manifestation of His love, till one day, when in earnest 
prayer, and lying prostrate on his face, he saw, with the eye of faith, 
our Saviour on the cross, and at the same time these words were spoken 
with power to his heart : — 

" ' Seiz'd by the rage of sinful men, 

I see Christ bound and bruis'd and slain ; 

'Tis done, the Martyr dies ! 
His life to ransom ours is given, 
And lo ! the fiercest fire of heaven 

Consumes the sacrifice. 

" ' He suffers both from men and God ; 
He bears the universal load 

Of guilt and misery ! 
He sicffers to reverse our doom, 
A nd lo / my Lord is here become 

The bread of life to me' 

2 



i8 



Wesley's Designated Successor. 



[1755* 



" Now all his bonds were broken. His freed soul began to breathe 
a purer air. Sin was beneath his feet. He could triumph in the Lord. 
From this time, he walked in the ways of God, and, thinking he had not 
leisure enough in the day, he made it a constant rule to sit up two whole 
nights in the week for reading, prayer, and meditation. At the same 
time, he lived on nothing but vegetables, and on bread with milk and 
water. (One end of his doing this was to avoid dining in company. 
Besides sitting up two entire nights every week, his custom was never 
to sleep so long as he could keep awake, and he always took a candle 
and book with him to bed. One night, being overcome with sleep 
before he had put out his candle, he dreamed that his curtain, pillow, 
and cap were on fire, but went out without doing him any harm. And 
truly so it was, for in the morning his curtain was found burnt, also 
a corner of his pillow, and a part of his cap, but not a hair of his head 
was singed.^ 

" Some time after this, he was favoured with a further manifestation 
of the love of God, so powerful, that, he said, it appeared to him as if 
his body and soul would be separated. Now all his desires centred in 
one, that of devoting himself to the service of his precious Master, which 
he thought he could best do by entering into holy orders." 1 

To complete the accounts of Fletcher's conversion, in 1755, 
an extract from another letter must be added. In that 
year, writing to his brother, he insisted on the vanity of 
earthly pursuits, and then gave the following description of 
the change that had taken place in himself: — 

" I speak from experience. I have been successively deluded by all 
those desires, and sometimes I have been the sport of them all at once. 
^This will appear incredible, except to those who have discovered that 
l^he heart of unregenerate man is nothing more than a chaos of obscurity 
and a mass of contradictions. I If you have any acquaintance with your- 
self, you will readily subscribe to this description of the human heart. 
/Every unconverted man must necessarily be either a voluptuary, a 
/ worldly-mi7ided person, or a pha7 r isaical philosopher : or, perhaps, like 
myself, he may be all of these at the same time ; and, what is still more 
extraordinary, he may be so not only without believing, but even without 
once suspecting "it ; indeed, nothing is more common among men than 
V an entire blindness to their own real characters^ How often have I 
placed my happiness in mere chimeras ! How often have I grounded 
my vain hope upon imaginary foundations ! I have been" constantly 
employed in framing designs for my own felicity ; but my disappoint- 
ments have been as frequent and various as my projects. 

" If, hitherto, my dear brother, you have beguiled yourself with pros- 
pects of the same visionary nature, never expect to be more successful 
in your future pursuits. One labour will only succeed another, making 



1 Letter to Mons. H. L. de la Flechere, 1786, p. 13. 



Age 25.] Further Accounts of Fletcher* s Conversion. 19 



way for continual discontent and chagrin. Open your heart, and there 
you will discover the source of that painful inquietude to which, by your 
own confession, you have been long a prey. Examine its secret recesses, 
and you will discover there sufficient proof of the following truths : ' The 
heart is deceit/id above all things, and desperately wicked;'' 'All 
have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; ' ' The thoughts of 
man's heart are only evil, and that continually ; ' - The natural man 
understandeth not the things of the Spirit of God.'' Kin- the discovery 
of these and other important truths, you will be convinced that man is 
an apostate being, composed of a sensual, rebellious body, and a soul 
immersed in pride, self-love, and ignorance ; nay more, you will perceive 
it a physical impossibility that man should ever become truly happy till 
he is cast, as it were, into a new mould, and created a second time. 1 

" For my own part, when I first began to know myself, I saw, I felt 
that man is an undefinable animal, partly of a bestial and partly of an 
infernal nature. The discovery shocked my self-love, and filled me with 
the utmost horror. I endeavoured for some time to throw a paUiating * 
disguise over the wretchedness of my condition, but the impression it \ 
had already made upon my heart was too deep to be erased. It was to 
no purpose that I reminded myself of the morality of my conduct; it was 
in vain that I recollected the many encomiums that had been passed \ 
upon my early piety and virtue; and it was to little avail that I sought r 
to cast a mist before my eyes by reasonings like these : ' If conversion 
implies a total change, who has been converted in these days ? Why 
dost thou imagine thyself worse than thou really art ? Thou art a' s 
believer in God and in Christ ; thou art a Christian ; thou hast injured | 
no person; thou art neither a drunkard nor an adulterer; thou hast 
discharged thy duties not only in a general way, but with more than 
ordinary exactness; thou art a strict attendant at church; thou art 
accustomed to pray more regularly than others, and frequently with a 
good degree of fervour; make thyself perfectly easy; moreover, Jesus 
Christ has suffered for thy sins, and His merit will supply everything 
lacking on thy part.' 

" It was by reasonings of this nature that I endeavoured to cone ea 
from myself the deplorable state of my heart ; and I am ashamed, my 
dear brother, that I suffered myself so long to be deluded by the artifices 
of Satan. God Himself has invited me ; a cloud of apostles, prophets, 
and martyrs have exhorted me; and my own conscience, animated by 
those sparks of grace which are latent in every heart, has urged me 
to enter in at the strait gate ; but, notwithstanding all this, a subtle 
temper, a deluding world, and a deceived heart have constantly turned 
the balance, for above these twenty years, in favour of the broad way-. 
I have passed the most lovely part of my life in the service of these tyranni- 
cal masters, and am ready to declare in the face of the universe that all 
my reward has consisted in disquietude and remorse. Happy had I 
listened to the earliest invitations of grace, and broken the iron yoke 
from off my neck." 1 



1 Gilpin's Translation of " The Portrait of St. Paul." 



20 



Wesley's Designated Successor, 



[1755- 



These extracts are long, but they are important. They 
contain all the known facts connected with Fletcher's con- 
version. 

In writing to his brother, Fletcher remarked, — " At 
eighteen years of age, I devoted as much time as I could 
spare to read the prophecies of the Holy Bible ;" and it is 
a curious fact that, in the year of his conversion, he wrote 
a long letter to Wesley, in which he gave a synopsis of the 
writings of "a great divine abroad," who had "spent fifty 
years in making himself perfectly master of the Oriental 
languages, and in comparing and explaining the various 
predictions scattered in the Old and New Testaments." 
Fletcher was well acquainted with this gentleman, and had 
many times conversed with him on the subjects of his life- 
long study. Substantially, the young man had adopted the 
aged man's views; and now, in a condensed form (filling, 
however, nineteen octavo printed pages), he presented them 
to Wesley. At the time, terrific wars were being waged, and, 
a month before the date of Fletcher's letter, the great earth- 
quake at Lisbon had occurred. At such seasons, devout men 
almost instinctively begin to study prophecies, and hence no 
wonder that Fletcher now felt more than ordinarily interested 
in what, " for some years, had often been the subject of his 
meditations." He believed thatl"the grand catastrophe of 
God's drama drew near apace," and gave his reasons for such 
belief by referring first to Nebuchadnezzar's dream, " which 
is a rough sketch of the world's four universal revolutions ;" 
secondly, to Daniel's vision of the four beasts ; and thirdly, to 
Daniel's vision of the ram and he-goat, and the two thousand 
and three hundred days, at the end of which the "sanctuary" 
was to " be cleansed." Fletcher, by elaborate calculations, 
shows that this cleansing was to take place between the 
years 1750 and 1770, and the following extract will indicate 
what, in his opinion, the cleansing meant: — 

" God is now working such a work as has not been seen since the 
Apostles' days. He has sent some chosen servants of His, both in these 
kingdoms and abroad, who, by the manifest assistance of the Holy 
Spirit, have removed the filthy doctrine of justification by works, and 
the outward Christless performance of moral duties, which pollute the 
sanctuary and make it an abomination to the Lord. The Holy Ghost 
is given, and the love of God is shed abroad in the hearts of believers 



Age 25. J 



Fletcher a Millenarian. 



21 



as in the days of old. I own that the cleansing is but begun ; but this 
revolution 1 may, in all probability, be the forerunner of a greater. God 
has called ; a few have obeyed His call. The generality still shut their 
eyes and ears against the tender invitations of their Lord, and continue 
to pollute the sanctuary and to look on the blood of the Lamb as an 
unholy thing. Shall not God carry on His work ? Shall the creature 
still resist the Creator ? and the arm of flesh be stronger than the living 
God ? Not so. He will not always strive with obdurate hearts. What 
the gentle breathings of His Spirit cannot perform, He will do by war, 
sword and fire, plague and famine, tribulation and anguish. He is 
going to gird on His sword, and His right hand shall teach Him terrible 
things. Nations refuse the sceptre of His mercy ; what remains, then, 
but to rule them with an iron sceptre, and break them in pieces like a 
potter's vessel?" 

Fletcher concludes by arguing in favour of the doctrine^ 
that, long before the general judgment Christ will appear 
on earth a second time to work out His great redeeming 
purposes. 

" Give me leave, Rev. Sir," says he, " to propose to you a thing that 
many will look upon as a great paradox, but has yet sufficient ground in 
Scripture to raise the expectation of every Christian who sincerely looks 
for the coming of our Lord ; I mean the great probability that, in the 
midst of this grand revolution, our Lord Jesus will suddenly come down 
from heaven, and go Himself conquering and to conquer ; for what but 
the greatest prejudice can induce Christians to think that the coming 
of our Lord, spoken of in so plain terms by three evangelists, is His last 
coming before the universal judgment and the end of the world ? " 2 

There cannot be a doubt that, at this period of his life, 
Fletcher was what is commonly called a Millenarian. Whether 
his views were right or wrong, the reader must determine For 
himself. 

When resident at Tern Hall, Fletcher attended the parish 
church at Atcham, a small village about five miles from 
Shrewsbury. Here the Rev. Mr. Cartwright was the offi- 
ciating minister, 3 and was accustomed to catechise in public 
the children of his parishioners. On one occasion, he invited 
the adults who needed instruction to appear in the ranks of 
the catechumens, and told them that to do so would be no 
disgrace to themj^ All, however, except Fletcher, either 
thought that to stand among the young people would dis- 

1 Meaning the war then raging. 

2 Arminian Magazine, 1793, p. 411. 

3 Benson's "Life of Fletcher," 2nd edit., p. 366. 



22 



Wesley s Designated Successor, 



[1756. 



grace them, or that further instruction in their case was not 
needed. The accomplished young scholar from Switzerland, 
the tutor of the two sons of their county member, had a 
lower opinion of his excellences than the village peasants 
had of theirs ; for, leaving his seat with an air of unaffected 
modesty, he took his place among the children, and became 
a catechumen of the village pastor. 1 

At Atcham, Fletcher became acquainted with Mr. Vaughan, 
an excise officer, who gave to Wesley the following account 
of his deeply-revered friend : — 

" It was our ordinary custom, when the church service was over, to 
retire into the most lonely fields or meadows, where we frequently either 
kneeled down, or prostrated ourselves on the ground. At those happy 
seasons, I was a witness of such pleadings and wrestlings with God, such 
exercises of faith and love, as I have not known in any one ever since. 
The consolations, which we then received from God, induced us to 
appoint two or three nights in a week, when we duly met, after his 
pupils were asleep. We met also constantly on Sunday, between four 
and five in the morning. Sometimes I stepped into his study on other 
days. I rarely saw any book before him, besides the Bible and the 
Christian Pattern.'''' 

" Our interviews for singing and conversation were seldom concluded 
without prayer, in which we were frequently joined by her who is now 
my wife (then a servant in the family), and by a poor widow in the 
village, who had known the power of God unto salvation, and who died 
some years ago, praising God with her latest breath. These were the 
only persons in the village whom he chose for his familiar friends ; but 
he sometimes walked to Shrewsbury, to see Mrs. Glynne or Mr. Appleton. 
He also visited the poor in the neighbourhood who were sick ; and, when 
no other person could be procured, performed even the meanest office s 
for them." 

Besides the godly friends mentioned in this interesting 
statement, Fletcher had another acquaintance at Atcham, 
whom he visited to be instructed in singing. This gentleman 
supplied Wesley with what follows : — 

"I remember but little of that man of God, Mr. Fletcher, it being 
above nine-and-twenty years since I last saw him ; but this I well 
remember, his conversation with me was alwa} T s sweet and savoury. 
He was too wise to suffer any of his precious moments to be trifled 
away. When company dined at Mr. Hill's, he frequently retired into 
the garden, and contentedly dined on a piece of bread and a few bunches 
of currants. Indeed, in his whole manner of living he was a pattern of 



Gilpin's note, in " Portrait of St. Paul," 



Age 27.] Fletcher and his Pious Friends. 



23 



abstemiousness. Meantime, how great was his sweetness of temper 
and heavenly-mindedness ! I never saw it equalled in any one. How 
often, when I parted with him at Tern Hall, have his eyes and hands 
been lifted up to heaven, to implore a blessing upon me, with fervour 
and devoutness unequalled by any I ever witnessed. I firmly believe 
he has not left in this land, or perhaps in any other, one luminary like 
himself." 1 

These glimpses of Fletcher, at this early period of his life, 
are too valuable and important to be omitted. 

It is impossible to determine the exact date when he 
joined the Methodist Society in London, but there can be 
no doubt that it was as early as the year 1756, and probably 
a year or two earlier. Hence the following extract from 
a letter addressed to Mr. Richard Edwards, the leader of 
the London class in which Fletcher had been enrolled a 
member : — 

"Tern, October 19, 1756. 
li Dearest Brother, — This is to let you know that I am very well 
in body and pretty well in soul ; but I have very few friends here, and 
God has been pleased to take away the chief of those few by a most 
comfortable death. My aged father also is gone the way of all flesh. 
For some years, I have written to him with as much freedom as I could 
have done to a son, though not with so much effect as I wished. But, 
last spring, God visited him with a severe illness, which brought him to 
a sense of himself ; and, after a deep repentance, he died about a month 
ago, in the full assurance of faith." 2 

Fletcher, at Geneva, had refused to enter the Christian 
ministry; now he entertained the most serious thoughts of 
devoting himself to it ; but before doing so he wrote to 
Wesley, with whom he had become acquainted. 

"Terx, Nove?nber 24, 1756. 

" Rev. Sir, — As I look on you as my spiritual guide, and cannot 
doubt of your patience to hear, and your experience to answer, a serious 
question proposed by any of your people, I freely lay my case before you. 

" Since the first time I began to feel the love of God shed abroad in 
my heart, which was, I think, when seven } r ears of age, I resolved to 
give myself up to Him and the service of His Church, if ever I was fit 
for it ; but the corruption which is in the world, and that which was in 
my heart, soon weakened, if not erased, those first characters that grace 
had wrote upon it. However, I went through my studies with a design 
of going into Orders ; but afterwards, upon serious reflection, feeling I 



1 Wesley's " Life of Fletcher." 
' Benson's " Life of Fletcher." 



24 



Wesley s Designated Successor. 



[1756 



was unequal for so great a burden, and disgusted by the necessity I 
should be under to subscribe to the doctrine of predestination, I yielded to 
the desire of my friends, who would have me go into the army. But just 
before I was quite engaged in a military employment, I met with such 
disappointments as occasioned my coming to England. Here I was 
called outwardly three times to go into Orders ; but, upon praying to 
God that if those calls were not from Him they might come to nothing, 
something always blasted the designs of my friends ; and in this I have 
often admired the goodness of God, who prevented me rushing into that 
important employment, as the horse does into the battle. I never was 
more thankful for this favour than since I heard the Gospel preached in 
its purity. Before, I had been afraid ; but then I trembled to meddle 
with holy things, and resolved to work out my salvation privately, without 
engaging in a way of life which required so much more grace and gifts 
than I possessed. Yet, from time to time, I felt warm and strong desires 
to cast myself and all my inability upon the Lord, if I should be called 
again, knowing that He could help me, and show His strength in my 
weakness ; and these desires were increased by some little success that 
attended my exhortations and letters to my friends. 

"I think it necessary to let you know, Sir, that my patron often 
desired me to take Orders, and said he would soon help me to a living ; 
to which I coldly answered, I was not fit, and that besides I did not 
know how to get a title. The thing was in that state when, about six 
weeks ago, a gentleman I hardly knew offered me a living; which, in 
all probability, will be vacant very soon ; and a clergyman, that I never 
spoke to, gave me, of his own accord, the title of curate to one of his 
livings. Now, Sir, the question which I beg you to decide is, whether 
I must and can make use of that title to get into Orders ? For with 
respect to the living, were it vacant, I have no mind to it, because I think 
I could preach with more fruit in my own country and in my own tongue. 

" I am in suspense ; on one side, my heart tells me I must try, and it 
tells me so whenever I feel any degree of the love of God and man ; 
but, on the other, when I examine whether I am fit for it, I so plainly t 
see my want of gifts, and especially of that soul of all the labours of a\ 
minister of the Gospel — love, continual, universal, flaming love, that I 
my confidence disappears ; I accuse myself of pride to dare to entertain I 
the desire of supporting the ark of the Lord, and conclude that an f 
extraordinary punishment will sooner or later overtake my rashness. 
As I am in both these frames successively, I must own, Sir, I do not 
see plainly which of the two ways before me I can take with safety, and 
I shall be glad to be ruled by you, because I trust God will direct you 
in giving me the advice you think will best conduce to His glory, the 
only thing I would have in view in this affair. I know how precious is 
your time ; I desire no long answer ; — persist or forbear will satisfy 
and influence, Sir, your unworthy servant, "J. FLETCHER." 1 



1 " Thirteen Original Letters, written by the late Rev. John Fletcher. 
Bath, 1791," i2mo, p. 3. 



Age 2j.] Fletcher on Sacraments in Methodist Chapels. 25 



Wesley's answer to this important letter has not been 
preserved. Perhaps no letter was written. Wesley was 
now in London. Parliament met eight days after Fletcher 
wrote to him. Public affairs were in a critical condition, 
and, no doubt, Mr. Hill would feel it a duty to be present 
at the opening of the session. When he came to London 
to fulfil his parliamentary duties, it was his custom to bring 
his sons and their tutor with him. That Fletcher was now 
in London is evident from the following letter, addressed to 
Wesley within three weeks after the date of his former one. 
Of course, he would have an interview with Wesley as early 
as possible, and in all likelihood Wesley, at this interview, 
not only advised him to be ordained, but likewise dissuaded 
him from his purpose to return to Switzerland. There is 
no reference in the letter to Fletcher's proposed ordination, 
for, doubtless, that was a matter already settled. Fletcher 
had been attending sacramental services in Wesley's London 
chapels ; and it had occurred to him that these services 
might be much improved, and Wesley himself considerably 
relieved. To say the least, the letter is full of interest, and 
contains a hint which, in large societies, might be profitably 
adopted. 

" December 13, 1756. 

" Sir, — When I have received the sacrament in your chapels, though 
I admired the order and decency with which that awful part of the 
divine worship was performed, I thought there was something wanting, 
which might make it still more profitable and solemn. 

"As the number of communicants is generally very great, the time 
spent in receiving is long enough for many, I am afraid, to feel their 
devotion languish, and their desires grow cold, for want of outward fuel. 
In order to prevent this, you interrupt, from time to time, the service of 
the table, to put up a short prayer, or to sing a verse or two of a hymn ; 
and I do not doubt but many have found the benefit of that method. 
But, as you can spare very little time, you are obliged to be satisfied 
with scattering those few drops, instead of a continual rain. Would 
not that want be easily supplied, Sir, if you were to appoint the preachers 
who may be present to do what you cannot possibly do yourself, to pray 
and sing without interruption, as at a watchnight ? 

"This would have several good effects: 1. Experience, as well as 
the nature of the thing itself, shows every sincere seeker that, as it is 
the fittest time to ask, and the most ordinary to receive grace, every 
moment ought to be improved to the best advantage. 2. Continual 
praying and singing would prevent the wanderings of many, who are 



26 Wesley* s Designated Successor. [1757. 



not convinced of sin deeply enough, or influenced by grace strongly 
-enough, to mourn and pray without interruption) if they are left to 
themselves. 3. It would increase the earnestness of believers ; for 
though every one wrestles probably in his own heart both for himself 
and the congregation, yet their prayers would certainly have more 
power if united, and the general fire would increase the warmth of their 
affections. 4. In praying frequently for universal love, as the remem- 
brance of Christ's bleeding love naturally directs us to do, you would 
add for many the benefit and comfort of a lovefeast to the advantages 
that attend the Holy Eucharist. 5. If the prayers were especially calcu- 
lated for those that receive, is it not probable, Sir, that they would be 
extremely encouraged to act faith, to touch the hem of Christ's garment, 
to cast their burden upon Him, and to lay hold of eternal life, if they 
heard their weak petitions supported by the fervent prayers of their 
brethren, at the same time that they feed, or are going to feed, on the 
blessed signs of Christ's body and blood ? 

" It may be objected: — 1. That some may prefer to pour out their 
souls before God according to their different frames, whether it be dead- 
ness, desertion, joy, overflowings of humility, repentance, love, etc. And 
so they might ; but I do not see how general prayer and singing would 
rob them of that liberty, if they thought it more acceptable to God and 
beneficial to themselves ; and their praying in private would not hinder 
the bulk of the congregation from uniting with joy in the public service. 
2. That this method might bring in a confusion greater than the advan- 
tages it seems to be attended with. But could not prudence obviate 
this ? I am sure it could ; for I have seen that, or something like it, 
performed in a congregation of a thousand communicants without the 
least confusion, and to the great edification and comfort of many. 

" But you are the best judge, Sir ; and if I take the liberty of giving 
you this hint, to make of it what use you think fit, it is because you 
said lately in the Society that you heard willingly the observations of 
your people, and were ready to follow or improve them if they were just 
and reasonable. 

" I am, Sir, your unworthy servant, 

"John Fletcher." 1 

Within three months after this, Fletcher was ordained. 
On Sunday, March 6, 1757, he received deacon's orders from 
the Bishop of Hereford ; and priest's orders on the Sunday 
following from the Bishop of Bangor, in the Chapel Royal 
at St. James's. 2 

On the day he was ordained priest, he hastened to 
Snowsfields Chapel, to assist Wesley in one of those heavy 



1 Methodist Magazine, 1798, p. 93. 

2 Gilpin's " Portrait of St. Paul." 



Age 27.] 



Fletcher Ordained. 



27 



sacramental services referred to in the foregoing letter. 
Wesley writes : — 

" I 757> Sunday, March 13. Finding myself weak at Snowsfields, I 
prayed (if He saw good) that God would send me help at the chapel, 
and I had it. As soon as I had done preaching, Mr. Fletcher came, 
who had just been ordained priest, and hastened to the chapel on pur- 
pose to assist me in the administration of the Lord's supper, as he 
supposed me to be alone. 

" Sunday, March 20. Mr. Fletcher helped me again. How won- 
derful are the ways of God ! When my bodily strength failed, and 
none in England were able and willing to assist me, He sent me help 
from the mountains of Switzerland, and an helpmeet for me in every 
respect ; where could I have found such another ?" 1 

Thus did Fletcher begin his remarkable ministerial life in 
a Methodist meeting-house. 



1 Wesley's " Works," vol. ii., p. 376; and vol. vii., p. 415. 



28 



Wesley s Designated Successor. 



[1757- 



CHAPTER III. 

FROM HIS ORDINATION TO HIS SETTLEMENT 
AT MADE LEY. 

1757 TO 1760. 

OR three years after his ordination, Fletcher was with- 
out a Church appointment. How did he spend this 
interval ? Wesley says : — 

" He was now doubly diligent in preaching, not only in the chapels at 
West Street and Spitalfields, but wherever the providence of God opened 
a door to proclaim the everlasting Gospel. This he did frequently in 
French (as well as in English), of which all judges allowed him to be a 
complete master." 1 

As might be expected, Fletcher soon became a great 
favourite among the first Methodists. Almost at once, he 
was the highly esteemed friend of Miss Bosanquet (his future 
wife), Ann Tripp, Sarah Crosby, Sarah Ryan, 2 Thomas 
Walsh, and others, whose Methodistic fame will never perish. 
After his death, in 1785, Mrs. Crosby wrote : — 

' ' It is now eight or nine and twenty years since I was first favoured 
with Mr. Fletcher's heavenly conversation, in company with Mr. Walsh 
and a few other friends, most of whom are now in the world of spirits. 
At these seasons, how frequently did we feel — 

' The o'erwhelming power of saving grace ! ' 

How frequently were we silenced thereby, while tears of love our souls 
o'erflowed ! It affects me while I recollect the humility, fervour of 
spirit, and strength of faith with which dear Mr. Fletcher so often 
poured out his soul before the Great Three One, at whose feet we have 
lain in holy shame and silence, till earth seemed turned to heaven. I 
heard this heavenly-minded servant of the Lord preach his first sermon 



1 Wesley's "Works," vol. vii., p. 415. 

2 Tyerman's "Life of Wesley," vol. ii., pp. 286, 289. 



Age 27.] Fletcher Preachi?ig in Shropshire. 29 



in West Street chapel. I think his text was, ' Recent, for the kingdom 
of heaven is at handS His spirit appeared in his whole attitude and 
action. He could not well find words in the English language to express 
himself; but he supplied that defect by offering up prayers, tears, and 
sighs. Nearly about this time he saw Miss Bosanquet, and began his 
acquaintance with her ; but, although they highly esteemed each other, 
they had no correspondence for above twenty years." 1 

Fletcher still continued to be the tutor of the sons of Mr. 
Hill. During the sitting of Parliament, he was in London ; 
the remainder of the year was chiefly spent at Tern Hall. 3 
Whilst at the latter place, he preached, on June 19, 1757, 
for the first time in the church at Atcham, taking as his 
text, ' Ye adulterers and adultresses, know ye not that the 
friendship of the world is enmity against God?" "A very 
bold beginning," wrote his friend Mr. Vaughan. " The con- 
gregation stood amazed, and gazed upon him as if he had been 
a monster ; but to me he appeared as a messenger sent from 
heaven. It was not soon that he was invited again to preach 
in Atcham church, but he was invited to preach in others ; 
first in Wroxeter, and afterwards at the Abbey Church in 
Shrewsbury ; 3 but I doubt whether he preached more than 
six times in the six months he stayed in the country. On 
my saying I wished he had more opportunities of preaching, 
he answered, ' The will of God be done; I am in His hands. 
If He does not call me to so much public duty, I have the 
more time for study, prayer, and praise.' " 4 

In the month of May, 1757, Wesley was in the north of 
England and Fletcher was in London. The following letter 
to Wesley needs no further introduction : — 

" London, May 26, 1757. 
" Rev. Sir, — If I did not write to you before Mrs. Wesley had asked 
me, it was not that I wanted a remembrancer within, but rather an 
encourager without. There is generally upon my heart such a sense of 
my unworthiness, that sometimes I dare hardly open my mouth before 
a child of God, and think it an unspeakable honour to stand before one 
who has recovered something of the image of God, or sincerely seeks 



1 Benson's " Life of Fletcher," 2 edit., p. 320. 

2 Wesley's " Life of Fletcher." 

3 Benson says, " He also preached twice in St. Alkmond's Church in 
Shrewsbury." 

4 Wesley's " Life of Fletcher." 



30 



Wesley* s Designated Successor. 



[I757- 



after it. Is it possible that such a sinful worm as I should have the 
privilege to converse with one whose soul is besprinkled with the blood 
of my Lord ? The thought amazes, confounds me, and fills my eyes with 
tears of humble joy. Judge, then, at what distance I must see myself 
from you if I am so much below the least of your children ; and whether 
a remembrancer within suffices to make me presume to write to you, 
whose shoes I am not worthy to bear. 

" I rejoice that you find everywhere an increase of praying souls. I 
doubt not that the prayer of the just has great power with God, but I 
cannot believe that it should hinder the fulfilling of Christ's gracious 
promises to His Church. He must, and certainly will, come at the time 
appointed, for He is not slack, as some men count slackness ; and, 
although He would have all come to repentance, He has not forgotten 
to be true and just. Only He will come with more mercy, and will increase 
the light that shall be at eventide, according to His promise in Zech. 
xiv. 7. I should rather think that the visions are not yet plainly dis- 
closed, and that the day and year in which the Lord will begin to make 
bare His arm openly, are still concealed from us. 

" I must say concerning Mr. Walsh, 1 as he once said to me concern- 
ing God, ' I wish I could attend him everywhere, as Elisha attended 
Elijah.' But since the will of God calls me from him, I must submit, 
and drink the cup prepared for me. I have not seen him, unless for a 
few moments three or four times before divine sendee. We must meet 
at the throne of grace, or meet but seldom. Oh when will the communion 
of saints be complete ? Lord, hasten the time, and let me have a place 
among them who love Thee, and love one another in sincerity ! 

"I set out in two days for the country. Oh may I be faithful ; harm- 
less, like a dove ; wise, like a serpent ; and bold, as a lion, for the 
common cause ! O Lord, do not forsake me ! Stand by the weakest 
of Thy servants, and enable Thy children to bear with me and to wrestle 
with Thee on my behalf ! 

" Oh bear with me, dear Sir, and give me your blessing every day, and 
the Lord will return to you sevenfold. 

"I am, Rev. Sir, your unworthy servant, J. Fletcher." 2 

There is no need to dwell on Fletcher's humbleness, as 
displayed in this letter, for that was one of his chief character- 
istics to the end of life. It may be added, however, that the 
letter furnishes fresh proof that Fletcher was one of the 
godly few who were expecting the speedy appearance of the 



1 Thomas Walsh, one of the most remarkable of Wesley's Itinerants. 
To say nothing of his piety and usefulness, Wesley declared him to be 
the best Hebrew scholar he had ever met. He died two years after the 
date of Fletcher's letter. 

2 "Thirteen Original Letters, written by the Rev. J. Fletcher, 1791," 
p. 8. 



Age 28.] 



Fletcher Preaching in Churches. 



31 



incarnate and glorified Redeemer. It is probable that his 
letter to Wesley on prophecy had led Wesley to advert to 
the same subject, and that this was Fletcher's answer to one 
of Wesley's critiques. 

Three weeks after the date of this letter, Fletcher preached 
his first sermon in a church. This was at Atcham, on June 1 9, 
as already stated. As in the case of W r esley, churches, how- 
ever, were soon closed against him. To his friend and class- 
leader, Mr. Edwards, of London, he wrote : — 

" I thank you for your encouraging observations. I want them, and 
use them by the grace of God. When I received yours, I had not had 
one opportunity of preaching ; so incensed were all the clergy against 
me. One, however, let me have the use of his church — the Abbey 
Church at Shrewsbury. I preached in the forenoon with some degree 
of the demonstration of the Spirit. The congregation was very numer- 
ous, and I believe one half, at least, desired to hear me again. But 
the minister would not let me have the pulpit any more. The next 
Sunday, the minister of a neighbouring parish lying a-dying, I was sent 
for to officiate for him. He died a few days after, and the chief man 
in the parish offered to make interest that I might succeed him ; but I 
could not consent. The next Sunday I preached at Shrewsbury again, 
but in another church. The next day I set out for Bristol, and was 
much refreshed among the brethren. As I returned, I called at New 
Kingswood, about sixteen miles from Bristol. The minister offering me 
his church, I preached to a numerous congregation, gathered on half 
an hour's notice. I think the seed then sown will not be lost." 1 

Early in the year 1758, Wesley introduced Fletcher to 
the Countess of Huntingdon. Her ladyship wrote : — 

" 1758, March 19. I have seen Mr. Fletcher, and was both pleased 
and refreshed by the interview. He was accompanied by Mr. Wesley, 
who had frequently mentioned him in terms of high commendation, as 
had Mr. Whitefield, Mr. Charles Wesley, and others, so that I was 
anxious to become acquainted with one so devoted, and who appears 
to glory in nothing, save in the cross of our Divine Lord and Master. 
Hearing that he preached in French, his native language, I mentioned 
the case of the French prisoners at Tunbridge. May the Lord of the 
harveS% bless his word, and send forth many such faithful ambassadors ! " 2 

Fletcher was becoming famous. Already, in his twenty- 
ninth year, he had gained the love and admiration of the 



1 Benson's " Life of Fletcher," 2nd edit., p. 38. 

2 " Life and Times of the Countess of Huntingdon," vol. i., p. 231. 



32 Wesley's Designated Successor. [1758. 



Wesley brothers, of Whitefield, and of the Methodist great 
" elect lady." At her request, Fletcher hied away to 
Tunbridge, and preached to a congregation of prisoners on 
their parole, who were so deeply affected by the truth, which 
many of them had not heard before, that they earnestly 
requested he would preach to them every Sunday. They 
proceeded even further, for they signed and sent a petition 
to Sherlock, Bishop of London, begging him to allow Fletcher 
to officiate as their weekly chaplain. Strangely enough, 
notwithstanding Sherlock's high repute for piety, he peremp- 
torily rejected the prisoners' petition. Wesley says : " If I 
had known this at the time, King George should have known 
it, and I believe he would have given the Bishop little 
thanks." 1 

Fletcher, as usual, continued in London with his pupils 
until the prorogation of Parliament, when Mr. Hill and his 
family returned to their country home. The journey to 
Shropshire was made in the family coach ; but, unfortunately, 
Mr. Hill commenced it on the Sabbath-day. 2 This was a 
trial to Fletcher. Hence the following letter to Charles 
Wesley : — 

"Tern, June 6, 1758. 
" Rev. axd Dear Sir, — Before I took my leave of you, the Sunday 
I set out, and indeed almost all the time I was at the communion table, 
I felt some degree of condemnation, as if, by setting out on that day, I 
profaned the Sabbath, and the Lord's supper; whereupon those words 
came strongly to my mind, ' Therefore many among you are sick and 
weak, and some are dead.' I immediately found myself out of order, 
and had much ado to reach home after the service was over. Till the 
horses were at the door, I thought I should not be able to go ; but found 
myself then a little strengthened. The next day, I was much worse, 
and they were obliged to make room for me in the coach. The day 
after, I was still worse, and really thought it would be my last. About 
noon, while the family was at dinner, I collected what little strength I 
had left ; and, falling prostrate before the Lord, I besought Him not to 
cut me off among heathens, but to grant me the favour of comforting 
and being comforted by some Christian at my death. This request, so 
contrary to true resignation, I think reached the ear of the Lord. He 
rebuked the rage of the fever, and sensibly filled my soul with all peace 



1 Wesley's "Life of Fletcher." 

2 Wesley himself not infrequently set out on his long journey to the 
north on Sunday. 



Age 28.] 



Letter to Charles Wesley. 



33 



in believing; so that I saw I was yet for the land of the living. Nay, 
a few hours after, I found myself as well as ever ; and so I continue 
now by God's grace. 

"What have I to do but to make good use of the health and leisure 
I have in this retreat ? I see my duty, and I form resolutions ; but, 
alas ! I carry with me a wicked heart, which enters not into these pro- 
jects ; and Satan is never more assiduous and eager to injure us than 
in retirement. I feel, however, by the grace of God, determined to 
sustain all the attacks of the flesh and of the devil, and to seize the 
kingdom of heaven by force. The Lord has been particularly gracious 
to me, in putting it into my heart to pray for the brethren. I have 
experienced more power and more pleasure in this duty of intercession 
than I have ever done. You will rightly judge that you are not forgotten 
in these poor prayers ; and I hope that you also sometimes remember 
me. 

"I hope you have overcome the scruple which prevented you from 
giving Mr. Maxfield full liberty to labour for the Lord among us. 1 The 
interest of the brethren, and no other motive, makes me desire it. 

" I shall not see you in Bristol ; 2 the journey of my pupils not taking 
place at the time expected. May the Lord be with you more and more 
in your labours and in your devotions ! Farewell ! 

"John Fletcher." 3 

At this period, Sarah Ryan, with whom Fletcher had 
become acquainted, was acting as the housekeeper in 
Wesley's " New Room" at Bristol. 4 To her Fletcher ad- 
dressed the following hitherto unpublished letter : — 

"Tern, October 12, 1758. 

" My SISTER, — Where shall I begin the sad account I must give you 
of my numberless infidelities from the time I left you ? That very day, 
having been called to preach in a church on our way, the freedom with 
which the Lord enabled me to do it puffed me up in some measure. 
The clear sight of the prize of my high calling was clouded, and so it 
remained till I got home, when it pleased God to revive my hope full of 



1 It is difficult to determine what is meant by this ; most likely 
Fletcher wished Thomas Maxfield to preach in the neighbourhood of 
Tern Hall. Five years afterwards, Maxfield left Wesley, and became 
an ordained clergyman of the Church of England. 

2 Wesley's Annual Conference was held in Bristol, in August, 1758. 

3 Fletcher's "Works," vol. viii., p. 154. 

4 Previous to becoming Wesley's housekeeper, Sarah Ryan, Mary 
Clarke, and Sarah Crosby lived together, in a small house in Christo- 
pher Alley, Moorfields. It was here that Miss Bosanquet (afterwards 
Fletcher's wife) formed an acquaintance with Sarah Ryan, in 1757. 
(See " Life of Mrs. Fletcher," by Henry Moore, pp. 17 20.) 

3 



34 



Wesley s Designated Successor. 



immortality, and to enable me to hunger and thirst after the everlasting 
righteousness that shall be brought into the souls of those in whom faith 
shall have its perfect work. During a few days, I rejoiced because of 
the power I had over the sin that most easily beset me, — I mean drowsi- 
ness ; but, alas ! my triumph was but short ; for, if the enemy did not 
come in at this door, another, no less effectual, was opened to him. 
Just as I was going to resume my daily course of business, I was called 
to preach in a church at Salop, and was obliged to compose a sermon 
in the moments I should have spent in praj^er. Hurry and the want of 
a single e3^e again drew a veil between the prize and my soul. In the 
meantime, Sunday came, and God rejected my impure service, and 
abhorred the labour of nry polluted soul ; and, while others imputed my 
not preaching to the fear of the minister who had invited me to his 
pulpit, and to the threatenings of a mob, I saw the wisdom and holiness 
of God, and rejoiced in that providence which does all without the 
assistance of hurrying Uzzah. 

" In general, I find I am surrounded with thousands of temptations, 
so much the more dangerous because they are disguised under the 
appearance of duties. I find, at times, such an alienation to religious 
duties as makes me almost question whether I have a grain of living 
faith. I think God has, this morning, shown me, in a clearer light than 
ever, that I must begin to hang upon frames no more, but learn to stand 
by a naked faith. 

' ' Your unworthy brother, 

"J FLETCHER. 

"P.S. — Direct to John Fletcher, under cover to Thomas Hill, Esq., 
M.P., at Tern, near Shrewsbury. 
"To Mrs. Ryan, 
"At the New Room in the Horse Fair, 
"Bristol." 

Thus did these earnest first Methodists watch over them- 
selves with a godly jealousy ; and thus, in addition to the 
Christian fellowship in their weekly class-meetings, did they 
tell their religious experience to each other in epistolary 
correspondence. To this fact, pre-eminently, Methodism is 
indebted for its rich biographies. 

Immediately after the date of the above letter, Fletcher 
must have set out for Bristol, for Wesley writes : — 

"In the following week" (the third week in October), "I met Mr. 
Fletcher, and the other preachers that were in the house at Bristol, 
and spent a considerable time in close conversation on the head of 
Christian Perfection. I afterwards wrote down the general propositions 
wherein we all agreed. ' ' 1 



1 Wesley's Journal. 



Age 29.] 



Fletcher and his Foes. 



35 



No doubt, these propositions were substantially the same 
as those which Wesley, two months before, had presented 
to his Annual Conference, and which were : — 

1. That Christian Perfection does not "exclude all infir- 
mities, ignorance, and mistake." 

2. That those who think they have attained Christian 
Perfection, in speaking their own experience, should " speak 
with great wariness, and with the deepest humility and self- 
abasement before God." 

3. That young preachers, especially, should " speak of 
Perfection in public, not too minutely or circumstantially, 
but rather in general and scriptural terms.'' 

4. That Christian Perfection " implies the loving God 
with ail the heart, so that every evil temper is destroyed, 
and every thought, and word, and work springs from, and 
is conducted to the end by, the pure love of God and our 
neighbour." 1 

At the close of the year, Fletcher, as usual, was, with the 
family of Mr. Hill, in London, where he wrote the following 
to Charles Wesley. There can be no doubt that the " humi- 
liation before he left Tern" was the imputations cast upon 
him on account of his failing to preach in the church at 
Salop, mentioned in the foregoing letter to Sarah Ryan. 

" London, December 12, 1758. 

" My Dear Sir, — Before I left Tern, the Lord gave me a medicine to 
prepare me to suffer what awaited me here. This humiliation prepared 
me so well that I was not surprised to learn a person in London had 
spread abroad many false and scandalous things of me during my 
absence ; and that the minds of many were prejudiced against me. In 
one sense, I took a pleasure in thinking that I was going to be rejected 
by the children of God, and that my Saviour would become more dear 
under the idea that, as in heaven, so now on earth, I should have none 
but Him. The first time I appeared in the chapel many were so offended 
that it was with difficulty they could forbear interrupting me in prayer, 
to tell me, ' Physician, heal thyself' I was on the point of declining 
to officiate, fearing I should only give fresh offence ; indeed, I should 
have done so had it not been for my friend Bernon, who pressed me to 
stand firm, representing the triumph my silence would give my enemies. 
His reasons appeared to me so cogent, that, as your brother did not 



1 "Minutes of Conference" (edition 1862), vol. L, p. 711. 



36 Wesley* s Designated Successor. [1759- 



reject my assistance, I read prayers, and engaged to preach sometimes 
of a morning ; which I have accordingly continued to do." 1 

This is an unpleasant but amusing episode, and presents 
these first Methodists in a frame of heart and mind far from 
commendable. Of course, Fletcher was not faultless. Perhaps 
he was blameable in the sermon affair at Salop ; but, as 
Wesley still permitted him to read prayers and to preach in 
the West Street chapel, London, it may be taken for granted 
that his offence, if an offence had been committed, was a 
very venial one. Some of the early Methodists had more 
zeal than charity. 

Fletcher continued to officiate in West Street chapel, and, 
whilst doing so, a proposal was made which occasioned him 
considerable anxiety. Nathaniel Gilbert inherited an estate 
in Antigua. For some years, he had been the Speaker in 
the House of Assembly of that island. In 1758, he was in 
England, and resided at Wandsworth. Wesley, on January 
17, 1 75 8, preached in his house, and met two of his negro 
servants and a mulatto, who appeared to be much awakened. 
In the month of November following, W T esley baptized the 
two negroes. Mr. Gilbert returned to Antigua in the autumn 
of 1759, and, having become acquainted with Fletcher, was 
desirous that he should go with him to the West Indian 
Islands, and preach to the planters and their slaves the 
" glorious Gospel of the blessed God." Hence the following 
letter to Charles Wesley: — 

" London, March 22, 1759. 

" My Dear Sir, — Since your departure, I have lived more than ever 
like a hermit. It seems to me that I am an unprofitable weight upon 
the earth. I want to hide myself from all. I tremble when the Lord 
favours me with a sight of myself ; I tremble to think of preaching only 
zo dishonour God. To-morrow, I preach at West Street, with all the 
feelings of Jonah. Would to God I might be attended with his success i 

"A proposal has lately been made to me to accompany Mr. Nathaniel 
Gilbert to the West Indies. I have weighed the matter, button one 
hand I feel that I have neither sufficient zeal, nor grace, nor talents to 
expose myself to the temptations and labours of a mission in the West 
Indies ; and, on the other, I believe that if God calls me thither, the time 
is not yet come. I wish to be certain that I am converted myself before 
I leave my converted brethren to convert heathen Pray let me know 



1 Letters, 1791. 



Age 29-1 Fletcher in his "Hired Chamber" 37 



what you think of this business. If you condemn me to put the sea 
between us, the command would be a hard one, but I might possibly 
prevail on myself to give you that proof of the deference I pay to your 
judicious advice. 

" I have taken possession of my little hired chamber. There I have 
outward peace, and I wait for that which is within. I was this morning 
with Lady Huntingdon, who salutes you. Our conversation was deep, 
and full of the energy of faith on the part of the Countess ; as to me, I 
sat like Saul at the feet of Gamaliel." 1 

Charles Wesley evidently was one of Fletcher's confi- 
dential advisers, and had great influence over him. Fortu- 
nately, that influence was not used to induce him to go to 
the West Indies. Had he gone, in all probability his "Checks 
to Antinomianism " would never have been written, and his 
incalculable services to Wesley and to Methodism would not 
have been rendered. 

From the concluding part of Fletcher's letter, it would 
seem that he was not now resident in Mr. Hill's London 
mansion, but had " a little hired chamber " of his own. The 
probability is, that, during the Easter holidays of Parliament, 
Mr. Hill had returned to Shropshire, and that Fletcher had 
remained in London to officiate for the two Wesleys in 
West Street chapel ; and, perhaps, in the Foundery, and in 
the chapel at Spitalfields. Twelve months previously, the 
Methodist Societies connected with these three places of 
worship had been blessed with the unspeakably precious 
ministry of the never-to-be-forgotten Thomas Walsh. "Lord," 
said he, when leaving them on February 19, 1758, "Lord, 
Thou hast given me much favour in the eyes of this people. 
They show it by words and deeds ; their prayers and tears. 
Reward them a thousandfold ! " Seventeen days after the 
date of Fletcher's foregoing letter, Thomas Walsh departed 
this life in Dublin, in the twenty-eighth year of his age. 
During his last days on earth, he was pre-eminently " in 
heaviness," great, distressing " heaviness, through manifold 
temptations." At length, Satan was defeated, victory came, 
Walsh rapturously exclaimed, " He is come ! He is come ! 
My Beloved is mine, and I am His ! His for ever ! " And, 
uttering these words, he triumphantly expired. 2 Fletcher 



Letters, 1791, p. 83. 2 Morgan's "Life of Walsh." 



38 Wesley s Designated Successor. [1759- 



had become acquainted with Walsh by attending his ministry 
in Wesley's London chapels. On hearing of his death, he 
wrote the following impassioned letter to Charles W T esley : — 

" London, Aftril—, 1759- 
"My Dear Sir, — With a heart bowed down with grief, and eyes 
bathed with tears, occasioned by our late heavy loss— I mean the death 
of Mr, Walsh — I take my pen to pray you to intercede for me. What ! 
that sincere, laborious, and zealous servant of God ! Was he saved 
only as ' by fire,' and his prayer not heard till the twelfth hour was just 
expiring ? Oh where shall I appear ! I, who am an unprofitable servant ! 
Would to God my eyes were fountains of waters to weep for my sins ! 
Would to God I might pass the rest of my days in crying, ' Lord, have 
■mercy u ft on me!' 'All is vanity' — grace, talents, labours, — if we 
compare them with the mighty stride we have to take from time into 
eternity ! Lord, remember me, now that Thou art in Thy kingdom ! 

"I have preached and administered the sacrament at West Street 
sometimes in the holidays. May God water the poor seed I have sown, 
and give it fruitfulness, though it be only in one soul ! But I have seen 
so much weakness in my heart, both as a minister and a Christian, that 
I know not which is most to be pitied — the man, the believer, or the 
preacher. Could I at last be truly humbled, and continue so always, 
I should esteem myself happy in making this discovery. I preach 
merely to keep the chapel open until God shall send a workman after 
His own hea? r t. 1 Nos nu?neri sumus ,' — this is almost all I can say of 
myself. If I did not know myself a little better than I did formerly, I 
should tell you that I had ceased altogether from placing any confidence 
in my repentances ; but I see my heart is so full of deceit that I cannot 
depend on my knowledge of myself. 

" <£ You are not well! Are you, then, going to leave us, like poor 
Walsh ? Ah ! stay, and permit me to go first ; that, when my soul 
leaves the body, you may commend it to the mercy of my Saviour. The 
day Mr. Walsh died, the Lord gave our brethren the spirit of supplica- 
tion ; and many unutterable groans were offered up for him at Spital- 
fields, where I was. Who shall render us the same kind offices ? Is 
not our hour near ? O, my God, when Thou comest, prepare us, and we 
shall be ready ! You owe your children an elegy on Mr. Walsh's death, 
and you cannot employ your poetic talents on a better subject." 1 

In this interesting letter, Fletcher prayed for success at 
West Street Chapel, even if the success was limited to^'only 
one soul." His prayer was answered. At this period, there 
lived, in the neighbourhood of Covent Garden, Owen and 
Alice Price, natives of Dolgelly, in North Wales. One of 



Letters, 1791, p. 85. 



Age 29.] 



A Convert. 



39 



their four children was named Mary, and was now fifteen 
years of age, In 1750, when an earthquake alarmed all 
London, little Mary was at school. The house in which 
the school was kept undulated ; several windows were 
broken ; the children were thrown down on their faces ; and 
a hoarse rumbling noise was heard for nearly a minute. 
Mary resolved, henceforth, to serve her Maker. She read 
the Bible ; she prayed ; but she was not happy. Some one 
recommended her to attend the preaching of the Methodists ; 
but she hesitated to do this, because the Methodists were 
despised, and her parents were opposed to enthusiasts. At 
length, Mary went to the chapel in West Street, Seven Dials. 
It was on a Sunday morning ; and in those days Methodist 
meeting-houses were crowded on Sunday mornings, at nine 
d clock. Mary made her way down the aisle ; the minister, 
who was reading the prayers, she had never seen before ; 
but his manner, his tones, and the glancing of his eyes, were 
irresistibly affecting. The minister was Fletcher, and there 
and then Mary resolved to be a Methodist. The preaching 
and praying of Fletcher were greatly blessed to her soul's 
profit ; and, after a severe struggle, she took courage to stay, 
at the close of the public service, to receive the sacrament. 
At that period in the history of Methodism, no one was 
allowed to remain who had not a society ticket, or a note 
from the officiating minister ; and, accordingly, the faithful 
steward told the Welsh maiden she must either go to the vestry 
for a note, or quit the chapel. She went, and, with fear and 
trembling, asked Fletcher's permission to remain. " Come," 
cried he, " come, my dear young friend, come, and receive 
the memorials of your dying Lord. If sin is your burden, 
behold the Crucified. Partake of His broken body and shed 
blood, and sink into the bottomless ocean of His love." Of 
course, Mary stayed. For three months afterwards, she 
sought the Lord diligently in the means of grace ; and then, 
under a sermon preached by Thomas Maxfield, found peace 
with God, through faith in Jesus Christ. In 1782, Mary 
Price married Peter Kruse ; Wesley appointed her to be the 
leader of a class at City Road, where she and her husband 
worshipped ; and, after being a godly Methodist for fifty- 
nine years, she peacefully expired, Joseph Benson preaching 



40 Wesley s Designated Successor. [1759. 



her funeral sermon, and her corpse being - interred in the 
burial-ground behind the City Road Chapel. 1 

Another convert may be mentioned here. Richard Hill 
(afterwards Sir Richard) was the eldest son of Sir Rowland 
Hill, the first baronet of a distinguished and ancient family 
Richard was now twenty-seven years of age. From child- 
hood, he had been blest with the strivings of God's Holy 
Spirit, and of late had been unutterably anxious about his 
soul. He writes : — 

"About October, 1757, I set myself to work with all the earnestness 
of a poor perishing mariner, who is every moment in expectation of 
shipwreck. I fasted, prayed, and meditated. I read the Scriptures, 
communicated, and gave much alms. But these things brought no 
peace to my soul ; on the contrary, I saw, what I had never seen before, 
that all my works were mixed with sin and imperfection. My terrors 
increased, insomuch that I could neither eat nor sleep, and did not 
think it possible for me to live a week. Everybody observed how ill I 
looked, and I had much ado to conceal the straits I was in from all 
about me. After having suffered in this manner a short time, I made 
my case known to a clergyman ; but all he said to me — which indeed 
was not much to the purpose— had little or no effect. What to do I 
knew not. Alas ! I had no acquaintance with any one who seemed to 
have the least experience in such a case as mine. Those about me 
showed the greatest concern for my situation, and offered their remedies 
for my relief, such as company, physic, and exercise, which, in order to 
oblige them, I complied with ; but my disorder was not to be removed 
by these carnal quackeries. What I wanted was a skilful physician 
for my soul ; but where to find such an one I knew not. 

"I recollected, however, that once, if not oftener, the Rev. Mr. 
Fletcher, then tutor to two neighbouring young gentlemen, had, in my 
hearing, been spoken of in a very disrespectful manner, for things which 
seemed to me to savour of a truly Christian spirit. I, therefore, deter- 
mined to make my case known to him, and, accordingly, wrote him a 
letter, without mentioning my name, giving him some account of my 
situation, and begging him, for God's sake, to meet me that very night 
at an inn at Salop, in which place I then was. Though Mr. Fletcher 
had four or five miles to walk, yet he came punctually to the appoint- 
ment, spoke to me in a very comfortable manner, and gave me to 
understand that he had very different thoughts of my state from what I 
had myself. After our discourse, he went to prayer with me, and, 
among the other petitions that he put up in my behalf, he prayed that I 
might not trust in my own righteousness ; an expression the import of 
which I scarcely knew. 



Methodist Magazine, 1818, pp. 360 — 367. 



Age 29.] 



Sir Richard Hill. 



41 



After my conversation with Mr. Fletcher, I was rather easier ; but 
this decrease of my terrors was of short duration. I allowed that the 
promises he would have me apply to myself belonged to the generality 
of sinners, but I thought they were not intended for me. I, therefore, 
wrote again to Mr. Fletcher, telling him that, however others might 
take comfort from the Scripture promises, I feared none of them belonged 
to me. I told him also, that I found my heart to be exceeding hard 
and wicked ; and that, as all my duties proceeded from a dread of 
punishment, and not from the principles of faith and love, and were 
withal so very defective, I thought it was impossible God should ever 
accept them. In answer to this, the kind and sympathising Mr. Fletcher 
immediately wrote me a sweet and comfortable letter, telling me that 
the perusal of the account I had given him had caused him to shed 
tears of joy, because he saw the Lord had convinced me of the in- 
sufficiency of all my own doings to justify me before God, and of the 
necessity of a saving faith in the blood of Jesus. He also sent me 'The 
Life and Death of Mr. Thomas Halyburton,' which book I read with 
greatest eagerness," 

After this, Sir Richard Hill proceeds to relate how he 
found peace with God on February 18, 1758 ; then how he 
relapsed into doubts and fears, and lost all his comfort; and 
then how he wrote to Fletcher in April, 1759, and said :— 

" My soul is again bowed down under the sense of the wrath of God. 
The broken law, with all its thunderings and lightnings, again stares 
me in the face. My hope seems to be giving up the ghost, and I see 
nothing before me but blackness and darkness for ever." 

Of course Fletcher replied to this letter. Before long, Sir 
Richard regained his lost faith and peace, and ever afterwards 
went on his way rejoicing. 1 

Thus, to an important extent, was Fletcher used in the 
conversion of the distinguished man, who, a few years later, 
became one of his sturdiest opponents in the great Calvinian 
controversy. 

In the middle of June, 1759, Mr - Hill, M.P., and his 
family left London for Shropshire, and, of course, Fletcher 
went with them. Up to the time of his departure, Fletcher 
continued to preach in Wesley's London chapels ; but, in 
writing to Charles Wesley, under the date of June 1, he 
remarks, with his characteristic humbleness : ' I am here 



Sidney's "Life of Sir Richard Hill," pp. 21-32. 



Wesley's Designated Successor. 



[1759- 



umbra pro corpore, I preach as your substitute ; come, and 
fill worthily an office of which I am unworthy." 1 

At Tern Hall, Fletcher again enjoyed his beloved retire- 
ment, and gave himself up to study, meditation, and prayer. 
Indeed, his whole life was now a life of prayer. " Wherever 
we met," says Mr. Vaughan, u if we were alone, his first 
salute was, ' Do I meet you praying ?' And, if we were 
conversing on any point of Divinity, he would often break 
off abruptly, and ask, ' Where are our hearts now ?" 2 Soli- 
tude, however, is often invaded by Satan. It was in the 
garden, where were only two human beings, that the devil 
gained his first victory on earth ; and it was in " the wilder* 
ness" that man's Redeemer was pre-eminently tempted by 
the same accursed enemy. The following, addressed to 
Charles Wesley, is a strange, but honest and instructive 
production, 

"Tern, July 19, 1759. 

"My Dear Sir, — Instead of apologizing for my silence, I will tell 
you that I have twenty times endeavoured to break it, but without effect. 
I will simply state the cause of it. 

" This is the fourth summer that I have been brought hither, in a 
peculiar manner, to be tempted of the devil in a wilderness ; and I have 
improved so little by my past exercises, that I have not defended myself 
better than in the first year. Being arrived here, I began to spend my 
time as I had determined ; one part in prayer, and the other in medita- 
tion on the Holy Scriptures. The Lord blessed my devotions, and I 
advanced from conquering to conquer, leading every thought captive 
to the obedience of Jesus Christ, when it pleased God to show me some 
of the folds- of my heart. As I looked for nothing less than such a 
discovery, I was extremely surprised ; so much so as to forget Christ. 
You may judge what was the consequence. A spiritual languor seized 
on all the powers of my soul, and I suffered myself to be carried away 
quietly by a current, with the rapidity of which I was unacquainted. 

" Neither doubt nor despair troubled me for a moment ; my temptation 
took another course. It appeared to me that God would be much more 
glorified by my damnation than by my salvation. It seemed altogether 
incompatible with the holiness, the justice, and the veracity of theSupreme 
Being to admit so stubborn an offender into His presence. I could do 
nothing but be astonished at the patience of God ; and I would willingly 
have sung those verses of Desbaraux if I had had strength : — 



1 Letters, 1791, p. 86. 

2 Benson's " Life of Fletcher." 



Age 29.] 



Temptation. 



43 



* Tonne, frappe, il est temps, rend moi guerre pour guerre, 
J' adore, en perrissant, la raison qui t'aigrit.' 1 

' ; Do not imagine, however, that I was in a state of evangelical 
repentance. No; a man who repents desires to be saved; but I desired 
it not. I was even impatient to go to my own place ; and secretly wished 
that God would for a moment give me the exercise of His iron sceptre 
to break myself to pieces as a vessel to dishonour. A bitter and cruel 
zeal against myself, and all the sinners who were with me, filled all my 
thoughts and all my desires. The devil, who well knew how to improve 
the opportunity, blew, without ceasing, the sparks of some corruptions, 
which I thought were extinguished, or at the point of being so, till at 
last the fire began to appear without. This opened my eyes ? and I felt 
it was time to implore succour. 

" It is now eight days since I endeavoured to pray, but almost with- 
out success. Yesterday, however, as I sang one of your hymns, the 
Lord lifted up my head, and commanded me to face my enemies. By 
His grace I am already a conqueror ; and I doubt not that I shall soon 
be more than conqueror. 

"Although I deserve it not, nevertheless hold up my hands till all 
these Amalekites be put to flight. " I am, etc., 

J. Fletcher." 2 

Certainly this was strange, perhaps unparalleled experi- 
ence. Paul wrote, " I could wish that myself were accursed 
from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the 
flesh!' John Fletcher seemed to wish for this, that God might 
be glorified. " A fit of melancholy," says the reader; "almost 
insanity." That, however, is sooner said than proved. Fletcher 
had a great work to do, and, as in the case of his Divine 
Master, temptations helped to prepare him for it. Weeks 
after the date of the foregoing letter, he continued to write 
bitter things against himself. The following letter has not 
before been published ; it was addressed " to Mrs. Ryan, at 
the Room in the Horse-Fair, Bristol : " — 

" Tern, September 5, if 59. 

" My Sister, — I have often been with you in spirit, desiring to follow 
you as you follow Christ; and I trust you have put up some petitions 
for me, that I may not run in vain, but may at last apprehend that for 
which I am apprehended. 

" I have been taught many lessons — by man, self, and Satan — since 
I saw you, but doubt I am not much nearer wisdom, unless it is in this 

1 " Thunder! strike ! it is time ; render me war for war ! 
In perishing, I adore the reason which incenses Thee." 
2 Letters, 1791, p. 88. 



44 



Wesley s Designated Successor, 



1759- 



point — that I am more foolish in my own eyes. I groan to be so often 
diverted from the pursuit of the one thing" needful ; but unfaithfulness, 
levity, unbelief, taint those groans, and make me question their sincerity 
and mine. Will you try once more to spur me out of my haltings ? 
Send me an account of the struggles you went through before you found 
rest. What degree of joy, fear, hope, sorrow, doubting, fervency or 
coldness of desire in soul and body — waking, working, and sleeping ? 

"Remember me to Miss Furley. 3 Were I less averse to writing, I 
would have written to her, to beg her not to faint at any time, but be 
a zealous follower of those who through faith and patience inherit the 
promises ; but I trust she does not want the advice as often as I do. 
Let me know how she does in the Lord and in the flesh, and desire her 
to remember me at the throne of grace. Adieu. 

"John Fletcher." 

Charles Wesley proposed that, during the ensuing Parlia- 
mentary session, Fletcher should be paid for his services in 
the London chapels. In the same spirit of self-abasement 
as is displayed in the foregoing letters, Fletcher replied as 
follows : — 

" Septe?nber 14, 1759. 
" My Dear Sir, — A few days ago, the Lord gave me two or three 
lessons on poverty of spirit, but, alas ! how have I forgotten them ! I 
saw, I felt, that I was entirely void of wisdom and virtue. I was ashamed 
of myself ; and I could say, with a degree of feeling which I cannot 
describe, 'Nil ago; nilhabeo; sum nil ; i?i ftulvero ser-po. 1 I could 
then say what Gregory Lopez was enabled to say at all times, 1 There 
is no man of whom I have not a better opinion than of myself.' I could 
have placed myself under the feet of the most atrocious sinner, and have 
acknowledged him for a saint in comparison of myself. If ever I am 
humble and patient, if ever I enjoy solid peace of mind, it must be in 
this very spirit. Ah ! why do I not find these virtues ? Because I am 



1 Dorothy Furley, the youngest daughter of John Furley, a Dutch and 
Turkey merchant, was born at West Ham in 1730. She was converted 
in early life, and became acquainted with the Countess of Huntingdon, 
Miss Bosanquet, the Wesley brothers, Miss Johnson, Mrs. Ryan, and 
many others of the first Methodists, by whom she was held in high 
esteem. In 1764, she was married to Mr. Downs, one of Wesley's local 
preachers in London. After her husband's death, she removed to Leeds, 
and died July 28, 1807. The written directions respecting her funeral 
concluded with these words : ' ' Glory, glory, glory be to my gracious God 
and Saviour ! I live in the full assurance of faith and hope that I shall 
see my Saviour's face, and behold that glory which He had with the 
Father before all worlds, but which He left for my sake. To Him I owe 
all my salvation, here and to all eternity. To Him, with the Father 
and the Holy Ghost, be all honour, dominion, and majesty, now and 
through all ages ! Amen. Hallelujah ! Amen. ' ' — Methodist Magazi?ie, 
1818, p. 222. 



Age 30.] 



Gratuitous Services, 



45 



filled with self-sufficiency, which blinds me and hinders me from doing 
justice to my own demerits. O pray that the spirit of Jesus may remove 
these scales from my eyes for ever, and compel me to retire into my 
own nothingness. 

" To what a monstrous idea had you well-nigh given birth. What ! 
the labours of my ministry under you deserve a salary ! I, who have 
done nothing but dishonour God hitherto, and am not in a condition 
to do anything else for the future ! If, then, I am permitted to stand in 
the courts of the Lord's house, is it not for me to make an acknowledg- 
ment, rather than to receive one ? If I ever receive anything of the 
Methodist Church, it shall be only as an indigent mendicant receives 
alms, without which he would perish. Such were some of the thoughts 
which passed through my mind with regard to the proposal you made 
to me in London ; and I doubt whether my own vanity, or your good- 
ness, will be able to efface the impressions they have left. 

" I have great need of your advice relative to the letters which I 
receive from my relations, who unite in their invitations to me to return 
to my own country. One says, to settle my affairs there ; another, to 
preach there ; a third, to assist him to die. They press me to declare 
whether I renounce my family, and the demands I have upon it. My 
mother, in the strongest terms, commands me at least to go and see 
her. What answer shall I make ? If she thought as you do, I should 
write to her, ' Ubi Christiani, ibi ftatria ; ' ' my mother, my brethren, 
my sisters, are those who do the will of my heavenly Father ; ' but she 
is not in a state of mind to digest such an answer. I have no inclination 
to yield to their desires, which appear to me merely natural, for I should 
lose precious time and incur expense. My presence is not absolutely 
necessary to my concerns ; and it is more probable that my relations 
will pervert me to vanity and interest, than that I shall convert them to 
genuine Christianity. Lastly, I should have no opportunity to exercise 
my ministry. Our Swiss ministers, who preach only once a week, would 
not look upon me with a more favourable eye than the ministers here, 
and would only cause me either to be laid in prison or to be immediately 
banished from the country. 

" Permit me to thank you for the sentence from Kempis, with which 
you close your letter, by returning you another. ' You run no risk in 
considering yourself as the wickedest of men, but you are in danger if 
you prefer yourself to any one.' " 1 

A fortnight later, Fletcher wrote again to Charles Wesley 
as follows : — 

"Tern, September 29, 1759. 
"What you say about reducing a mother to despair has made me 
recollect, what I have often thought, that the particular fault of the 
Swiss is to be without natural aJfectioi2. With respect to that prefer- 

1 Letters, 1791, p. 91. 



4 6 



Wesley s Designated Successor. 



[1759- 



ence which my mother shows me above her other children, I see clearry I 
am indebted for almost all the affection she expresses for me in her letters 
to my absence from her, which hinders her from seeing my faults. 
Nevertheless, I reproach myself severely, that I cannot interest myself 
in her welfare as much as I did in that of my deceased father. I am 
astonished at the difference. I believe the time is not yet come when 
my presence may be of service to her ; and I flatter myself she will not 
be shocked at my refusal, which I have softened as much as I could. 

" I fear you did not rightly understand what I wrote about the pro- 
posal you made me at London. So far from making conditions, I feel 
nryself unworthy of receiving them. I trouble myself with no temporal 
things ; my only fear is that of having too much, rather than too little, 
of the necessaries of life. I am. weary of abundance. I could wish 
myself to be poor with my Saviour. Those whom He hath chosen to be 
rich in faith, appear to me objects of envy in the midst of their wants." 1 

Fletcher wanted no salary for preaching in Methodist 
chapels ; and, for the present, he refused to return to Swit- 
zerland. His reason for the latter might have been more 
filially expressed ; but no one will doubt his sincerity, or 
that his motives were not pure. The next letter, written 
two days later, was addressed to Sarah Ryan, Wesley's 
housekeeper at Bristol, and to her friend, Dorothy Furley. 
It is too full of eloquent piety to be abridged. 

" October 1, 1759. 

" Dear Sisters, — I have been putting off writing to you, lest the 
action of writing should divert my soul from the awful and delightful 
worship it is engaged in. But I now conclude I shall be no loser, if I 
invite you to love Him my soul loveth ; to dread Him my soul dreadeth; 
to adore Him my soul adoreth. 

" Sink with me before the throne of grace ; and, while the cherubim 
veil their faces, and cry out in tender fear and exquisite trembling, 
' Holy ! Holy ! Holy ! ' let us put our mouths in the dust, and echo back 
the solemn sound, ' Holy ! Holy ! Holy ! ' Let us plunge ourselves in 
that ocean of purity. Let us try to fathom the depths of Divine mercy ; 
and, convinced of the impossibility of such an attempt, let us lose 
ourselves in them. Let us be comprehended by God, if we cannot 
comprehend Him. Let us be supremely happ3^ in God. Let the intense- 
ness of our happiness border upon misery, because we can make Him 
no return. Let our head become waters, and our eyes a fountain of 
tears, — tears of humble repentance, of solemn joy, of silent admiration, 
of exalted adoration, of raptured desires, of inflamed transports, of 
speechless awe. My God and my all ! Your God and your all ! Our 
God and our all ! Praise Him ! With our souls blended into one bv 



1 Letters, 1791, p. 95. 



Age so.] Fletcher Visits Lady Huntingdon* 47 



Divine love, let us with one mouth glorify the Father of our Lord Jesus 
Christ ; our Father, who is over all, through all, and in us all. 

" I charge you before the Lord Jesus, who giveth life and more 
abundant life ; I entreat you by all the actings of faith, the stretchings 
of hope, the flames of love you have ever felt, sink to greater depths of 
self-abasing repentance ; rise to greater heights of Christ-exalting joy. 
And let Him, who is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that 
you can ask or think, cam- on, and fulfil in you the work of faith with 
power ; with that power whereby He subdueth all things unto Himself. 
Be steadfast in hope, immovable in patience and love, always abounding 
in the outward and inward labour of love ; and receive the end of your 
faith, the salvation of your souls. 

" I am, dear sisters, your well-wisher, 

"John Fletcher." 1 

Mr. Benson inclines to think that it was at this period 
that Fletcher first preached at Madeley. The Rev. Mr. 
Chambers was the vicar, and frequently desired the tutor of 
Mr. Hill's sons to assist him in his ministerial duties. Tern 
Hall was ten miles from Madeley, and one of Mr. Hill's 
grooms was ordered to have a horse ready for Fletcher's use 
every Sunday morning. So great, however, was his aversion 
to giving trouble to any one, that, if the groom did not 
awake at the proper time, he seldom would suffer him to be 
called ; but prepared the horse for himself. 2 

Parliament was opened on November 13, when, as usual, 
Mr. Hill and his family repaired to London. Two days 
afterwards, Fletcher wrote the following to Charles Wesley : — 

" London, J\ r ovember 15, 1759. 

" My Dear Sir, — Your letter was not put into my hands till eight 
days after my arrival in London. I carried the enclosed to its address, 
and passed three hours with a modern prodigy, — an humble and fiious 
countess. I went with trembling, and in obedience to your orders ; but 
I soon perceived a little of what the disciples felt when Christ said to 
them, ' is I, be not afraid.' 

" Her ladyship proposed to me something of what you hinted to me 
in your garden, — namely, to celebrate the communion sometimes at her 
house of a morning, and to preach when occasion offered, — in such a 
manner, however, as not to restrain my liberty, nor to prevent me assist- 
ing you, or preaching to the French refugees ; and that only till Provi- 
dence should clearly point out the path in which I should go. Charity, 
politeness, and reason accompanied her offer; and I confess, in spite 

1 " Thirteen Original Letters," by Rev. John Fletcher, 1791, p. 9. 

2 Benson's " Life of Fletcher." 



4 8 



Wesley* s Designated Successor. 



[1759- 



of the resolution, which I had almost absolutely formed, to fly the houses 
of the great, without even the exception of the Countess's, I found 
myself so greatly changed, that I should have accepted, on the spot, 
her ladyship's proposal; but my engagement with you withheld me; 
and, after thanking her, I said, when I had reflected on her obliging 
offer, I would do myself the honour of waiting upon her again. 

" Nevertheless, two difficulties stand in my way. Will it be consistent 
with the poverty of spirit, which I seek ? Can I accept an office for 
which I have such small talents ? And shall I not dishonour the cause 
of God, by stammering out the mysteries of the Gospel in a place where 
the most approved ministers of the Lord have preached with so much 
power, and so much success ? What think you ? 

" I give myself up to your judicious counsels. I feel myself unworthy 
of them ; much more still of the appellation of friend, with which you 
honour me. You are an indulgent father to me, and the name of son 
suits me better than that of brother." 1 

It hardly need be added, that the " modern prodigy," the 
" humble and pious Countess," was Lady Huntingdon, to 
whom Wesley had introduced Fletcher nearly two years 
before. Her ladyship's proposal really amounted to this, that, 
without at all interfering with his preaching for the Wesley 
brothers, and with his labours among the French prisoners 
and refugees, Fletcher should act as one of her domestic 
chaplains. Charles Wesley's reply to Fletcher's inquiries 
has not been preserved ; but there can be no doubt it was 
favourable, for such was Fletcher's profound respect for 
Methodism's poet, that, if he had, in the least, disapproved 
of the Countess's offer, it would most certainly have been 
declined. " I am so assured of your salvation," wrote 
Fletcher, in the letter from which the foregoing is extracted, 
" that I ask no other place in heaven, than that I may have 
at your feet. I doubt even if Paradise would be Paradise 
to me, unless it were shared with you." This language was 
extravagant ; but it shows the high admiration in which 
Fletcher, at this time, held one who might be justly called 
his dearest and most confidential friend. The proposal of 
the Countess of Huntingdon was accepted ; and Fletcher 
opened his commission to the great and honourable in her 
ladyship's drawing-room, in the lowly spirit of St. Paul, 
" Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints, is this 



1 Letters, 179J, p. 98. 



Age 30.] 



Fletcher's First Published Sermon. 



49 



grace given, that I should preach the unsearchable riches of 
Christ." During the ensuing winter, he preached in Wesley's 
London chapels, as usual ; and, alternately with the Wesley 
brothers and other clergymen, he preached in the houses of 
Lady Huntingdon, Lady Gertrude Hotham, and Lady Frances 
Shirley, generally once, and frequently twice, in every week. 1 
The French prisoners and refugees have been mentioned. 
Unfortunately, there are no details preserved of the extent and 
success of Fletcher's labours among those pitiable sojourners ; 
but there can be no doubt that it was for their instruction 
and benefit, that Fletcher, in 1759, published a sermon in 
the French language, entitled, "Discours sur la Regeneration. 
Imprime a Londre Tan 1759." i2mo, 48 pp. His sermon 
is founded upon John iii. 3, "Jesus answered and said unto 
him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born 
again, he cannot see the kingdom of God." At the end of 
the discourse are two short poems, in French, with the titles, 
"Sentiments d'une Ame que la Grace regenere;" and " Le 
Bonheur de l'homme Regenere." The subject and substance 
of the whole may be gathered from the brief preface, of 
which the following is a translation : — 

" Some prejudiced persons having caused it to be reported that I 
preach a dangerous doctrine, you will be able to judge as to that, with 
a knowledge of the case, by reading this discourse on Regeneration. 

"I beg you to read, in addition, some short pamphlets which have 
just appeared, and which are entitled, ' The Nature and Design of 
Christianity ; ' 2 'Salvation by Faith; ' 3 and 'Awake thou that sleepest.' 4 
I recommend these three works for your examination, because, although 
I am not the author of them, they contain the sentiments which I wish 
to see engraven in our hearts, as they were in the heart of St. Paul. 

" If you find here the religion of Christ, give the glory to God, and 
let it be found in the depths of your own souls ; but, if you find anything 
contrary to the Holy Scriptures and the purity of Christianity, I pray 
you, in the name of the Lord, to point it out to me. Conduct so kind 
will sensibly oblige your servant in Christ, 

"J. De la Flechere." 



1 " Life and Times of the Countess of Huntingdon," vol. i., p. 233. 

2 An extract from Law's " Christian Perfection," first published by 
Wesley in 1740 ; the sixth edition appeared in 1759. 

3 Wesley's " Sermon on Salvation by Faith," first published in 1738 ; 
and a tenth edition in 1756. 

Charles Wesley's well-known sermon, preached before the University 
of Oxford, on April 4, 1742. 

4 



50 Wesley's Designated Successor. [1760. 



With the exception of a tract, entitled " A Christmas Box 
for Journeymen and Apprentices," which, Wesley says, was 
printed and circulated in 1758, this " Discours sur la Re- 
generation " was Fletcher's earliest publication. 

During the first three months of 1760, Fletcher enjoyed 
sweet intercourse with his beloved and confidential fnend, 
Charles Wesley. The latter relates that he forgot his birth- 
day till Fletcher s prayer put him in mind of it. He and 
Fletcher had conversations respecting the doctrine of assur- 
ance, which they both held, but which they thought had 
not been sufficiently guarded. In a letter, dated March 1 6, 
1760, Charles observes, — "God has remarkably owned the 
Word since Mr. Fletcher and I changed our manner of 
preaching it." 1 

At this period, the Methodists of London took a pro- 
found interest in the fate of Earl Ferrars, brother of the 
Rev. Walter Shirley, and cousin of the Countess of Hunting- 
don. This profligate nobleman had murdered his steward, 
and was now awaiting his trial by the Peers of England. 
The unhappy culprit was executed on the 5 th of May. 
Many were the prayers offered for his conversion. A day 
of fasting was kept at the Foundery. 

"Yesterday," wrote Charles Wesley, on April 4, "many met me in 
the chapel (West- street),, to join in prayer for the murderer. Till 4 p.m. 
we continued looking upon Him whom we had pierced. I never remem- 
ber a more solemn season. I carried Mr. Shirley and his sister to Mrs. 
Herritage's, where Mr. Fletcher helped us to pray for poor Barabbas, 
as he calls him. Again the spirit made intercession for him with groans 
unutterable. Our watch-night lasted from seven to half-past ten. My 
text was, ' Is it nothing to you, all ye that pass by ? Behold, and see 
if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow,' etc. (Lamentations of 
Jeremiah i. 12). The Word was sent, I believe, to many hearts. Mr. 
Fletcher seconded it. We both prayed after God, particularly for the 
criminal. The chapel was excessively crowded, and therefore very hot. 
Miss Shirley carried me to my lodgings. It was past eleven before John 
Fletcher and I got to rest." 2 

The last words of this extract almost indicate that Charles 
Wesley and Fletcher were living together, in the same house ; 
but, be that as it may, there cannot be a doubt of the warm 
friendship that existed between them. 



1 C. Wesley's Journal, vol. ii., p. 22;. 2 Ibid., vol. ii., p. 231. 



Age 30.] 



Glorious Services at Everton. 



51 



Besides preaching in Wesley's London chapels, Fletcher 
occasionally preached for the Countess of Huntingdon, at 
Brighton. 1 He also visited Berridge at Everton. Hence 
the following, addressed to Charles Wesley : — 

"Dunstable, March 1, 1760. 

"My Dear Sir,— J have had a pleasant journey as to my body, 
but an unhappy one for my soul. Everything required that I should 
cry without ceasing, 1 Lord, he merciful to me a sinner/' but, alas ! 
I have not done so. The fine weather invites me to execute a design, 
I had half formed, of making a forced march to spend next Sunday at 
Everton, Mr. Berridge' s parish. May the voice of the Lord there be 
heard by a poor child of Adam, who, like him, is still behind the trees 
of his stupidity and impenitence ! 

"If I do not lose myself across the fields before I get there, and if 
the Lord is pleased to grant me the spirit of supplication, I will pray 
for you, until I can again pray with you. Don't forget me, I beseech 
you. I would fain be with you on those solemn occasions, when a 
thousand voices are raised to heaven to obtain those graces which I have 
not ; but God's will be done ! 

" Don't forget to present my respects to the Countess. If I continue 
any time at Everton, I shall take the liberty of giving her some account 
of the work of God in these parts ; if not, I will give it her in person. 
Adieu. "John Fletcher." 2 

Strange scenes had recently been witnessed at Everton 
and in the surrounding country ; and it is not surprising 
that Fletcher was desirous of seeing what the hand of God 
had wrought. His visit was a memorable one. On arriving, 
he introduced himself to Berridge " as a new convert, who 
had taken the liberty to wait upon him for the benefit of 
his instruction and advice." Berridge, perceiving he was a 
foreigner, asked what countryman he was. 

" A Swiss, from the canton of Berne," was the reply. 

" From Berne ! then probably you can give me some 
account of a young countryman of yours, John Fletcher, 
who has lately preached a few times for the Messrs. Wesley, 
and of whose talents, learning, and piety, they both speak 
in terms of high eulogy. Do you know him ?" 

" Yes, sir, I know him intimately ; and did those gentle- 
men know "him as well they would not speak so highly of 



1 " Life and Times of the Countess of Huntingdon," vol. L, p. 233. 

2 Letters, 1791, p. 100. 



52 Wesley's Designated Successor. [1760. 



him. He is more obliged to their partial friendship than to 
his own merits." 

" You surprise me," said Berridge. 

" I have the best reason for speaking of John Fletcher as 
I do. I am John Fletcher." 

" If you be John Fletcher," replied Berridge, " you must 
take my pulpit to-morrow." 1 

Thus began Fletcher's acquaintance w T ith Berridge. No 
doubt he preached at Everton, for strong-willed Berridge 
was wont to have his w T ay. It is probable that Fletcher 
communicated what he had seen and heard to the Countess 
of Huntingdon. At all events, it is said, her ladyship, 
accompanied by Martin Madan and Henry Venn, hastened 
to join him there. On the morning after their arrival, at 
seven o'clock, Berridge preached to an enormous congre- 
gation, assembled in a field near his church. At eleven, 
in the church, Mr. Hicks read prayers, and Venn explained 
the "joy that is in heaven over one sinner that repenteth." 
In the afternoon, to an amazing multitude gathered from all 
parts of the surrounding country, Martin Madan cried, in the 
open air, " If any man thirst, let him come unto me and 
drink." Next day, in the morning, Fletcher read prayers, 
and Madan preached from " Ye must be born again," the 
church being crowded to excess, and the windows filled 
within and without. In the afternoon, the prayers were read 
by Berridge, and Venn enforced the words, " This is life 
eternal, to know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, 
whom Thou hast sent." Large numbers being unable to 
gain admission to the church, Berridge addressed those out- 
side from, " Seek the Lord while He may be found ; call 
upon Him while He is near." The third day's services were 
even more remarkable than the previous ones. It was cal- 
culated that, in the small village of Everton, ten thousand 
persons were assembled to hear the Word of God, and to 
join in His holy services. The number is almost incredible ; 
and picturesque must have been the travelling tribes as they 
journeyed to this " hill of Zion." Venn preached, of course, 
in the open air, from the text, " The harvest is past, the 



1 Cox's "Life of Fletcher," p. 25. 



Age 30.] 



Glorious Services at Ever ton. 



53 



summer is ended, and we are not saved." The huge con- 
gregation was deeply affected, and several persons, both men 
and women, fell to the ground and wept bitterly. The 
afternoon congregation was even greater than that in the 
morning. At night, Berridge was the preacher, and selected 
as his text, " Behold the Lamb of God, who taketh away 
the sin of the world." Towards the close of his sermon, 
five persons "sunk down as dead;" and others cried with 
a loud and bitter cry, "What must we do to be saved?" 
Berridge concluded his discourse ; and these memorable 
three days' services were finished by the assembled thou- 
sands, the Countess, and the five clergymen, all joining in 
singing Wesley's noble hymn, — - 

11 Arm of the Lord, awake, awake ! 

Thine own immortal strength put on ! 
With terror clothed, hell's kingdom shake, 
And cast Thy foes with fury down ! 

"As in the ancient days appear ! 

The sacred annals speak Thy fame : 
Be now omnipotently near, 
To endless ages still the same. 

" Thy arm, Lord, is not shortened now, 
It wants not now the power to save ; 
Still present with Thy people, Thou 

Bear' st them through life's disparted wave,, 

" By death and hell pursued in vain, 

To Thee the ransomed seed shall come, 
Shouting their heavenly Sion gain, 
And pass through death triumphant home. 

" The pain of life shall there be o'er, 
The anguish and distracting care, 
There sighing grief shall weep no more, 
And sin shall never enter there. 

"Where pure, essential joy is found, 

The Lord's redeemed their heads shall raise, 
With everlasting gladness crowned, 
And filled with love, and lost in praise." 1 

What pen can adequately describe this grand outburst of 
scriptural faith and Christian exultation ? It was a scene 



1 " Life and Times of the Countess of Huntingdon," vol. i., p. 400. 



54 



Wesley's Designated Successor. 



[1760, 



that has not oft been equalled ; and, no doubt, helped to 
increasingly qualify Fletcher for the great work that awaited 
him. 

Fletcher's duties as a tutor were now ended. The two 
sons of Mr. Hill had become undergraduates at Cambridge. 
Fletcher seems to have returned to Tern Hall ; but, as a 
new Parliament was about to be elected, Mr. Hill objected 
to the ordained tutor preaching in the neighbourhood of the 
Hall, because his well-known Methodist proclivities might 
raise a stumbling-block at the polling-booths. Hence the 
following extract from a letter addressed to the Countess of 
Huntingdon : — 

"Tern, September 6, 1760. 

''The fear Mr. Hill has, that I should lessen his interest at Shrewsbury 
at the next election, — the shyness of the neighbouring clergy, — and the 
want I feel of an ordination from the great Shepherd and Bishop of my 
soul, will probably prevent my preaching at all in the country. O may 
the Spirit of God preach the Gospel to my heart ! 

" Generous as you are, Madam, I believe you would have saved me 
the shame of receiving the present you made me at Paddington, had you 
foreseen the uneasy thoughts it raised in my heart. 'Is not this making 
godliness a gain ? Can I in conscience receive what is devoted to the 
poor when I am not in actual want ?' I am not ashamed of living upon 
charity, but to receive it, without being an immediate object of charity, 
gives me more uneasiness than want could possibly do. And now I am 
deprived, for many months, of the unspeakable advantage of living upon 
Providence, and must live upon a stock, as well as the rich of this world! 
Is not this a lesson ? And does not your generosity, Madam, bid me 
look to Jesus for poverty of spirit, without which all outward acts are 
nothing but pride, sin, misery, and lies ? 

" I am, with gratitude and shame, your ladyship's unworthy servant, 

" J. Fletcher." ] 

Fletcher was without employment. What was the best 
course to take ? He might have permanently united himself to 
the Wesley brothers ; or he might have devoted himself to the 
congregations of the Countess of Huntingdon. But another 
path was marked out for him by an unerring Providence, 
He had been of great service to the sons of Mr. Hill ; and 
Mr. Hill was desirous of promoting his preferment. The 
living of Dunham, in Cheshire, was now vacant, and Mr. Hill 



1 " Life and Times of the Countess of Huntingdon," vol. L, p. 234. 



Age 31.] 



Choosing a Benefice. 



55 



informed Fletcher that it was at his service. " The parish/' 
said he, " is small, the duty light, the income good (£400 
per annum), and it is situated in a fine, healthy, sporting 
country." "Alas!" replied Fletcher, "alas, Sir, Dunham 
will not suit me ; there is too much money, and too little 
labour." " Few clergymen make such objections," rejoined 
Mr. Hill. " It is a pity to decline such a living, especially 
as I know not that I can find you another. What shall we 
do ? Would you like Madeley ?" "That, Sir," said Fletcher, 
" would be the very place for me." " My object," answered 
Mr. Hill, " is to make you comfortable in your own way. If 
you prefer Madeley, I shall find no difficulty in persuading 
Mr. Chambers to exchange it for Dunham, which is worth 
more than twice as much as Madeley." 1 

An arrangement was soon made. Mr. Hill's nephew was 
the patron of the Madeley living ; and Mr. Hill himself the 
patron of that of Dunham. The uncle and nephew met at 
Shrewsbury races, and there, on a 7'acecourse, of all places in 
the world, it was settled that the Madeley living should 
be offered to Fletcher. The presentation was made ; but 
Fletcher, at the last moment, hesitated to accept it, and wrote 
to his friend Charles Wesley as follows : — 

"Tern, September 26, 1760. 

"A fortnight ago, the minister of this parish, with whom I have had 
no connection for these two years, sent me word (I know not why) that 
his pulpit should be at my service at any time. 

" Some days after, I ventured -a visit of civility to the vicar of a neigh- 
bouring parish, who fell out with me, three years ago, for preaching 
faith in his church. He received me with the greatest kindness, and 
said often, he would have me take the care of souls somewhere or other, 

" Last Sunday, the vicar of Madeley, to whom I was formally curate, 
coming to pay a visit here, expressed great regard for me ; seemed to 
be quite reconciled : and assured me, that he would do all he could to 
serve me ; of which he yesterday gave me- a proof, by sending me a 
testimonial unasked. 

" He was no sooner gone, than news was brought that the old clergy- 
man'* (at Dunham) "died suddenly the day before; and that same 
day, before I heard it, Mr. Hill, meeting, at the races, his nephew, who 
is patron of Madeley, told him, if he would present me to Madeley, he 
would give the vicar of that parish the living vacated by the old clergy- 



Cox's " Life of Fletcher," p. 32, 



56 



Wesley* s Designated Successor. 



[1760. 



man's death. This was immediately agreed to, as Mr. Hill himself 
informed me in the evening, wishing me joy. 

"You have repeatedly advised me not to resist Providence, but to 
follow its leadings. I am, however, inwardly in suspense. My heart 
revolts at the idea of being here alone, opposed by my superiors, hated 
by my neighbours, and despised by all the world. Without piety, without 
talents, without resolution, how shall I repel the assaults, and surmount 
the obstacles which I foresee, if I discharge my duty at Madeley with 
fidelity ? On the other hand, to reject this presentation, to burn this 
certificate, and to leave in the desert the sheep whom the Lord has 
evidently brought me into the world to feed, appears to me nothing but 
obstinacy and refined self-love. I will hold a middle course between 
these extremes : I will be wholly passive in the steps I must take ; and 
active in praying the Lord to deliver me from the evil one, and to conduct 
me in the way He would have me to go. 

" If you see anything better, inform me of it speedily; and, at the 
same time, remember me in all your prayers, that, if this matter be not 
of the Lord, the enmity of the Bishop of Lichfield, who must countersign 
my testimonials ; the threats of the chaplain of the Bishop of Hereford, 
who was a witness to my preaching at West Street ; the objections drawn 
from my not being naturalized ; or some other obstacle, may prevent 
the kind intentions of Mr. Hill." 1 

Within a week after the date of this communication, several 
of Fletcher's anticipated obstacles were gone. Hence the 
following, from a letter addressed to the Countess of Hunt- 
ingdon, who was visiting the Rev. Benjamin and Lady 
Margaret Ingham, in Yorkshire : — 

" 1760, October 3. — Were I to have my choice, I would prefer waiting 
at the pool under your roof, or that of those who think like you, to any 
other way of life ; and I will own to your ladyship, that the thought of 
giving this up is one of the chief difficulties I have now to encounter. 
But I seem to be a prisoner of Providence, who is going, in all proba- 
bility, to cast my lot among the colliers and forge-men of Madeley. 
The two thousand souls of that parish, for whom I was called into the 
ministry, are many sheep in the wilderness, which I cannot sacrifice to 
my own private choice. 

"When I was suffered to attend them, for a few days, some began 
to return to the Shepherd of their souls, and I found it then in my heart 
to spend and be spent for them. It is true, when I was sent away from 
them, that zeal cooled to such a degree, that I have wished a thousand 
times they might never be committed to my care ; but the impression of 
the tears of those who, when I left them, ran after me crying, ' Who will 
now show us the way to heaven ?' never quite wore off, and, upon second 
thoughts, I always concluded that, if the Lord made my way plain to 



1 Letters, 1791, p. 106. 



Age 31]. 



Choosing a Benefice. 



57 



their church, I could not run away from it without disobeying the order 
of Providence. 

"That time is come. The church is vacated; the presentation to it 
brought, unasked for, into my hands ; the difficulty of getting proper testi- 
monials, which I looked upon as insurmountable, vanishes at once ; the 
three clergymen that had opposed me with the most bitterness, signed 
them ; the Bishop of Lichfield countersigns them without the least 
objection ; the lord of the manor, my great opposer, leaves the parish ; 
and the very man (the vicar), who told me I should never preach in 
that church, now recommends me to it, and tells me he will induct me 
himself. 

"Are Dot these intimations of the will of God ? It seems so to me. 
What does your ladyship think ? I long to go and consult you in York- 
shire, but cannot do it now, without giving up the point on which I want 
your advice." 1 

There is, or, at least, there used to be, in the parish vestry 
at Madeley, a book containing the following inscription : — 
" John Fletcher, clerk, was inducted to the vicarage of 
Madeley, the 17th of October, 1760. John Fletcher, vicar." 

The deed was done. Wesley had strongly opposed his 
acceptance of the Madeley living, telling him that to take 
a living was not his calling. Charles Wesley's advice is 
unknown ; but, probably, it was the reverse of his brother's. 
John desired and greatly needed the help of an ordained 
clergyman, not only to preach, but to administer the sacra- 
ments to the multiplying Methodists. He tried to retain 
Fletcher, a minister to his own heart's content ; but he failed. 
It was well he did. In the itinerancy, Fletcher's time for 
reading and study would have been extremely limited. At 
Madeley, he had abundance of leisure for both, and, during 
the next ten years, acquired that theological wealth, which, 
in the hour of need, enabled him to be of the greatest service 
to Wesley, by the writing of his unanswerable " Checks to 
Antinomianism." 

Wesley's opposition is mentioned in the following extracts 
from two letters addressed to the Countess of Huntingdon : — 

" 1760, October 28. All the little circumstances of my institution and 
induction have taken such an easy turn, that I question whether any 
clergyman ever got over them with less trouble. I preached last Sunday, 



1 " Life and Times of the Countess of Huntingdon," vol. i., p. 237, 



58 



Wesley s Designated Successor. 



[1760. 



for the first time, in my church, and shall continue to do so. though I 
propose staying with Mr. Hill till he leaves the country, which will be, 
I suppose, in a fortnight, partly to comply with him to the last, and 
partly to avoid falling out with my predecessor, who is still at Madeley, 
but who will remove about the same time. 

" Among many little providences, I shall mention one to your lady- 
ship. The Bishop having unexpectedly sent me word to go to him 
for institution without delay, if I wished not to be at the trouble of 
following him to London, I set out in haste for Hereford, where I arrived 
the day before his lordship's departure. As I went along, I thought 
that if my going to Madeley was from the Lord, it was providential that 
I should thus be called to be instituted in the country, for were it to be 
in London, Sir Peter Rivers, the Bishop's chaplain, who examined me 
for orders, and who made so much noise last summer in West Street 
Chapel, where he found me preaching, would infallibly defeat the end 
of my journey, according to his threatenings. Thus did worldly wisdom 
work in my heart ; but no divination can stand against the God of Jacob, 
who is a jealous God, and does not give His glory to another. A clergy- 
man, named Sir Dutton Colt, came to see the Bishop just as I entered 
the palace, and the secretary, coming to him, said in my hearing, ' Sir 
Peter is just come from London to take possession of a prebend, which 
the Bishop has given him ; he is now in the palace ; how do you rank 
with him ?' My surprise was great, for a moment, and my first thought 
was to ride away without institution ; but, having gone too far to retreat, 
I had an instant strength from on high to be still and see the salvation 
of the Lord. My second thought was to thank God for sending this 
man from London in that point of time to defeat Mr. Hill's design; 
and, easily throwing up Madeley, I cried for strength to make a good 
confession before the high priest and the scribe ; and I felt I had it, 
but I was not called to use it, for the Bishop was alone, the ceremonv 
was over in ten minutes, and Sir Peter did not come in till after. I met 
him at the door of the Bishop's room, and a wig I had on that day 
prevented his recollecting who I was. Your ladyship cannot conceive 
how thankful I was for this little incident, not because I was not dis- 
appointed of a living, but because I saw and felt, that, had I been 
disappointed, it would have been no disappointment to me. 

" If I know anything of myself, I shall be much more ready to resign 
my benefice, when I have had a fair trial of my unprofitableness to the 
people committed to my care, than I was to accept it. Mr. John Wesley 
bids me do it without a trial. He will have me ' see the devil's snare, 
and Ay from it at the peril of my soul.' I answer, I cannot see it in 
that light, He adds, ' Others may do well in a living ; you cannot ; it 
is not your calling.' I tell him, I readily own that I am not fit to plant 
or water any part of the Lord's vineyard; but that if I am called at 
all, I am called to preach at Madeley, where I was first sent into the 
ministry, and where a chain of providences, I cculd not break, has again 
fastened me ; and that, though I may be as unsuccessful as Xoah, yet 
I am determined to try to be there a preacher of Christ's righteousness; 



age 3i.] Commencement of Ministry at Madeley. 59 



and that, notwithstanding my inability, I am not without hopes, that 
He who reproved a prophet's madness by the mouth of an ass, may 
reprove a collier's profaneness even by my mouth. 

" I reserve for another letter an account of my own soul, and of what 
begins to be as dear to me as my own soul — my parish ." 1 

The other letter, here promised, was written three weeks 
later. The following is an extract from it : — 

" Terx, November 19, 1760. 

" I have hitherto written my sermons, but I am carried so far beyond 
my notes when in the pulpit, that I propose preaching with only my 
sermon-case in my hand next Friday, when I shall venture on an evening 
lecture for the first time. I question whether I shall have above half-a- 
dozen hearers ; but I am resolved to try. 

" The weather and the roads are so bad, that the way to the church 
is almost impracticable ; nevertheless all the seats were full last Sunday. 
Some begin to come from adjacent parishes, and some more (as they 
say) threaten to come when the season permits. 

"I cannot yet discern any deep work, or indeed anything but what 
will always attend the crying down of man's righteousness, and the 
insisting upon Christ's — I mean a general liking among the poor; and 
offence, ridicule, and opposition among the ' reputable ' and ' wise ' 
people. Should the Lord vouchsafe to plant the Gospel in this county, 
my parish seems to be the best spot for the centre of such a work, as it 
lies among the most populous, profane, and ignorant. 

" But it is well if, after all, there is any work in my parish. I despair 
even of this, when I look at myself, and quite fall in with Mr. John 
Wesley's opinion about me; though I sometimes hope the Lord has 
not sent me here for nothing. I am, however, fully determined to resign 
my living, if the Lord does not think me worthy to be His instrument. I 
abhor the title of a living for a living's sake ; it is death to me. 

" There are three meetings in my parish — a Papist, Quaker, and 
Baptist, and they begin to call the fourth the Methodist one — I mean 
the Church. But the bulk of the inhabitants are stupid heathens, who 
seem past all curiosity, as well as all sense of godliness. I am ready 
to run after them into their pits and forges, and I only wait for Providence 
to show me the way. I am often reduced to great perplexity ; but the 
end of it is sweet. I am driven to the Lord, and He comforts, encou- 
rages, and teaches me. I sometimes feel that zeal which forced Paul 
to wish to be accursed for his brethren's sake ; but I want to feel it 
without interruption. The devil, my friends J and my heart have pushed 
at me to make me fall into worldly cares and creature snares, — first, by 
the thoughts of marrying ; then, by the offers of several boarders, one 
of whom, a Christian youth, offered me ^60 a year ; but I have been 



' Life and Times of the Countess of Huntingdon," vol. i. p. 238. 



6o 



Wesley* s Designated Successor. 



[1760. 



enabled to cry, 1 Nothing but J esus , and the service of His people ;' 
and I trust the Lord will keep me in the same mind." 1 

In such a way and spirit did Fletcher begin his ministry 
of twenty-five years' duration at Madeley. Comment on his 
simple and honest letters is unnecessary ; it would be unin- 
structive meddling, which would try the reader's patience. 



1 " Life and Times of the Countess of Huntingdon," vol. i., p. 239. 



Age 31.] 



Madeley. 



61 



CHAPTER IV. 

FIRST TWO YEARS AT MADELEY. 

FROM OCTOBER I 7, 1760, TO NOVEMBER 2 2, 1/62. 

ALMOST of necessity, the life of a clergyman in a small 
country town is an uneventful and quiet one ; and, 
therefore, the first ten years that Fletcher spent at Madeley 
were unmarked by stirring incidents, such as were perpetually 
occurring in the lives of his friends Wesley and Whitefield. 

Madeley is a market town in the county of Salop. It is 
beautifully situated in a winding glen, through which the 
river Severn flows. In 1800, fifteen years after Fletcher's 
death, it contained, according to the parliamentary returns, 
291 houses, and 4,758 inhabitants. The church is dedicated 
to St. Michael ; and the parish includes Coalbrook Dale 
and Madeley Wood, noted for their coal mines and their 
iron-works. Colliers and iron-workers at Madeley, in the 
days of Fletcher, were quite as ignorant and brutal as they 
were elsewhere. His mission was a trying one ; and its 
burdensomeness was not lessened by the fact that there was 
not a single clergyman in the county of Salop who approved 
of his Methodist doctrines, or sympathized with his Methodist 
endeavours. Further, he was without parochial experience. 
He had preached for the Wesleys and for the Countess of 
Huntingdon ; and, on a few rare occasions, he had been 
permitted to occupy the pulpits of the Established Church ; 
but, notwithstanding the temporary assistance he had ren- 
dered to his Madeley predecessor, he had never held a 
curacy. In parish work he was a novice ; but he was not 
dismayed. A few months before his induction, he had been 
with Berridge, who, with the exception of Mr. Hicks at 



£>2 Wesley s Designated Successor. [1761. 



Wrestlingworth, was as much without clerical sympathy and 
help in Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, and Huntingdonshire, 
as Fletcher himself was now in Salop. Berridge had seen 
-^marvellous results of his denounced ministry, and why should 
not Fletcher see the same ? Hence, on January 6, 1761, he 
wrote as follows to the .Countess of Huntingdon : — 

" I had a secret expectation to be the instrument of a work in this 
part of our Church ; and I did not despair of being soon a little 
Be7 r ridge. Thus warmed with sparks of my own kindling, T looked 
out to see the rocks broken, and the waters flowing out ; but, to the 
great disappointment of my hopes, I am now forced to look within, and 
see the need I have of being broken myself. If my being stationed in 
this howling wilderness is to answer no public end as to the Gospel of 
Christ, I will not give up the hope that it may answer a private end as 
to myself, in humbling me under a sense of unprofitableness. 

"As to my parish, all that I see in it, hitherto, is nothing but what 
one may expect from speaking plainly, and with some degree of earnest- 
ness ; a crying out, ' He is a Methodist — a downright Methodist ! ' 
While some of the poorer say, ' Nay, but he speaketh the truth ! ' Some 
of the best farmers, and most of the respectable tradesmen, talk about 
turning me out of my living as a Methodist or a Baptist. My Friday 
lecture took better than I expected, and I propose to continue it till 
the congregation desert me. The number of hearers at that time is 
generally larger than that which my predecessor had on Sunday. The 
number of communicants is increased from thirty to above a hundred ; 
and a few seem to seek grace in the means. I thank your ladyship for 
mentioning Mr. Jones as a curate. There is little probability of my 
ever wanting one. My oath obliges me to residence, and, when I am 
here, I can easily manage all the business, and only wait for oppor- 
tunities of oftener bearing witness to the truth." 1 

Fletcher's troubles were various. He was dissatisfied with 
himself ; a visionary convert caused him anxiety ; and many 
of his parishioners maligned him. Writing to Charles Wesley 
on March 10, 1761, he remarked : — 

"I feel more and more that I neither abide in Christ, nor Christ in 
me ; nevertheless, I do not so feel it, as to seek Him without inter- 
mission. ' Oh wretched man that I am J who shall deliver me from ' 
this heart of unbelief? Blessed be God, who has promised me this 
deliverance, through our Lord Jesus Christ ! 

" My new convert has, with great difficulty, escaped the wiles of the 
devil ; who, by fifty visions, had set her on the pinnacle of the temple. 
Thanks be to God, she has come down without being cast headlong. 



" Life and Times of the Countess of Huntingdon," vol. i., p. 240. 



Age 31.] 



Increasing Labours. 



63 



I have had more trouble with her visions than with her unbelief. Two 
other persons profess that they have received the consolations of Divine 
love : I wait for their fruits. 

"A few days ago, I was violently tempted to quit Madeley. The 
spirit of Jonah had so seized upon my heart that I had the insolence to 
murmur against the Lord ; but the storm is now happily calmed, at 
least for a season. Alas ! what stubbornness there is in the will of 
man ; and with what strength does it combat the will of God under the 
mask of piety, when it can no longer do so with the uncovered, shame- 
less face of vice ! 1 If a man bridleth 7tot his tongue,' all his outward 
'religion is vain.' May we not add to this,\if a man bridleth not his 
will, which is the language of his desires, h.is^rnward religion is vain 
also f\ The Lord does not, however, leave me altogether ; and I have 
often'a secret hope that He will one day touch my heart and lips with 
a live coal from the altar ; and that then His word shall consume the 
stubble, and break to pieces the stone. 

"The question, which you mean to repeat at the end of the winter, 
is, I hope, whether you shall be welcome at Madeley ? My answer is, 
you shall be welcome ; for I have already lost almost all my reputation, 
and the little that remains does not deserve a competition with the 
pleasure I shall have in seeing you." 1 

Notwithstanding his dejection, and the opposition he had 
to encounter, Fletcher continued to labour with unflagging 
diligence. To his Friday night lecture he now added the 
catechising of children on Sunday afternoons, but relieved 
himself of the toil of preparing a second Sunday sermon, by 
reading the sermons of other men. He also began to see a 
prospect of commencing services at Madeley Wood and at 
Coalbrook Dale. Hence, in another letter to Charles Wesley 
he wrote as follows : — 

"Madeley, April 27, 1761. 

"When I first came to Madeley, I was greatly mortified and dis- 
couraged by the smallness of my congregations ; and I thought if some 
of our friends in London had seen my little company they would have 
triumphed in their own wisdom. But now, thank God, things are 
altered in that respect. Last Sunday, I had the pleasure of seeing 
some in the churchyard who could not get into the church. 

" I began a few Sundays ago to preach in the afternoon, after 
catechising the children ; but I do not preach my own sermons. Twice 
I read a sermon of Archbishop Usher's; and last Sunday one of the 
Homilies, taking the liberty of making some observations on such 
passages as confirmed what I had advanced in the morning ; and, by 
this means, I stopped the mouths of many adversaries. 



1 Letters, 1791, p. 107. 



64 Wesley's Designated Successor. [1761. 



"I have frequently had a desire to exhort in Madeley Wood and 
Coalbrook Dale, two villages of my parish ; but I have not dared to run 
before I saw an oj>en door. It now, I think, begins to open. Two small 
Societies of about twenty persons have formed of themselves in those 
places, although the devil seems determined to overturn all. A 3^oung 
person, the daughter of one of my rich parishioners, has been thrown 
into despair, so that everybody thought her insane, and, indeed, I 
thought so too. Judge how our adversaries rejoiced ; and, for my part, 
I was tempted to forsake my ministry, and take to my heels ; I never 
suffered such affliction. Last Saturday, I humbled myself before the 
Lord on her account, by fasting and prayer ; and I hope the Lord 
heard my prayer. Yesterday, she found herself well enough to come to 
church. 

"You will do well to engage your colliers at Kingswood to pray for 
their poor brethren at Madeley. May those at Madeley, one day, equal 
them in faith, as they now do in that wickedness, for which they (the 
Kingswood colliers) were famous before you went among them. 

"Mr. Hill has written me a very obliging letter, to engage me to 
accompany the elder of my pupils to Switzerland ; and if I had any 
other country than the place where I am, I should, perhaps, have been 
tempted to go. At present, however, I have no temptation that way, 
and I have declined the offer as politely as I could." 1 

The case of the young woman just mentioned was to 
Fletcher a great trial. In a letter written to Lady Hunting- 
don 2 on the same day as the foregoing letter to Charles 
Wesley, he states, that, previous to this, reports had been 
spread that he drove the people mad, and he had borne 
such scandals " patiently enough," but this " glaring instance,", 
which seemed to confirm the rumours circulated against him, 
had thrown him into " agonies of soul." To a great extent, 
Fletcher had yet to learn a lesson which the Wesleys and 
Whitefield had long ago been taught : " If ye be reproached 
for the name of Christ, happy are ye ; for the spirit of glory 
and of God resteth upon you" (1 Peter iv. 14). 

The scandals were continued ; and even the pulpit was 
used in lampooning the Madeley preacher. Hence the 
following, addressed to Charles Wesley : — 

" Madeley, August 19, 1761. 
" I know not whether I mentioned to you a sermon preached at the 
Archdeacon's Visitation. It was almost all levelled at the points which 
are called the doctrines of Methodism, and, as the preacher is minister 



1 Letters, 1791, p. 109. 

2 " Life and Times of the Countess of Huntingdon," vol. i., p. 241. 



Age 31.] 



Rev. Mr. Protherd s Sermon. 



65 



of a parish near mine, it is probable he had me in his eye. After the 
sermon, another clergyman addressed me with an air of triumph, and 
demanded what answer I could make. As several of my parishioners 
were present, besides the churchwardens, I thought it my duty to take 
the matter up ; and I have done so by writing- a long letter to the 
preacher, in which I have touched the principal mistakes of his discourse, 
with as much politeness and freedom as I was able ; but I have had no 
answer. I could have wished for your advice before I sealed my letter ; 
but, as I could not have it, I have been very cautious, entrenching 
myself behind the ramparts of Scripture, as well as those of our 
Homilies and Articles. 

"I know not what to say to you of the state of my soul. I daily 
struggle in the Slough of Despond, and I endeavour every day to climb 
the Hill Difficulty. I need wisdom, mildness, and courage ; and no man 
has less of them than I. 

" As to the state of my parish, the prospect is yet discouraging. New 
scandals succeed those that wear away ; but ' offeitces must come.'' 
Happy shall I be if the offence cometh not by me. My churchwardens 
speak of hindering strangers from coming to the church, and of repel- 
ling them from the Lord's table ; but on these points I am determined 
to make head against them. A club of eighty working men, in a 
neighbouring parish, being offended at their minister, determined to 
come in procession to my church, and requested me to preach a sermon 
for them ; but I thought proper to decline doing so, and have thereby 
a little regained the good graces of the minister, at least for a time." 1 

The preacher, at the Archdeacon's visitation, was the 
Rev. Mr. Prothero ; 2 and the " long letter " to him may be 
found in Fletcher's collected works (vol. viii.), where it fills 
twenty-eight octavo pages, and is entitled a " Defence of 
Experimental Religion." It is dated " Madeley, July 25, 
1 76 1 ." 

Mr. Prothero's " elegant sermon," as Fletcher terms it, 
seems to have consisted of two parts : a defence of revealed 
religion against Deists and Infidels ; and a warning against 
religious superstition and enthusiasm. The first part gave 
Fletcher " exceeding great satisfaction," and the design of 
the second part was good, for, as Fletcher remarks, " It is 
the duty of a preacher to keep the sacred truths committed 
to him, as well from being perverted by enthusiasts, as from 
being crushed by infidels. Boasting of communion with God, 



1 Letters, 1791, p. in. 

2 Methodist Magazine, 1821, p. 17. 

5 



66 



Wesley s Designated Successor. 



[1761. 



and peculiar favours from heaven, is hurtful to the cause of 
Christ, when people's lives show them to be actuated by a 
spirit of delusion ; and setting up impulses in the room of 
repentance, faith, hope, chanty, obedience, has done no small 
mischief in the Church of God." 

But, while Fletcher praises Mr. Prothero for " the goodness 
of his design," he passes strictures upon the execution of it. 
He condemns Mr. Prothero for " representing, in general, 
that virtue, benevolence, good-nature, and morality, are the 
way to salvation ;" and shows, that according "to the Word 
of God and the teaching of our Church," sinners are saved 
by the exercise of faith in Christ. He objected to Mr. Pro- 
thero's doctrine, that, by nature, and without the assistance 
of Divine grace, man " has the same power to enter the paths 
of virtue as to walk across a room." He censured the way 
in which the preacher discountenanced the doctrine of the 
necessity of the new birth ; and he maintained, at great 
length, that to " set aside all feelings in religion, and to rank 
them with unaccountable impulses," is not consistent with 
the teachings of the Bible, and with the Liturgy, Articles, and 
Homilies of the English Church. 

Soon after this, Fletcher was in another trouble. Hence 
the following letter written to Charles Wesley : — 

"Madeley, Octobe?- 12, 1 76 1. 

" My Dear Sir, — You have always the goodness to encourage me, 
and your encouragements are not unseasonable ; for discouragements 
follow one after another with very little intermission. Those which are 
of an inward nature are sufficiently known to you ; but some others are 
peculiar to myself, especially those I have had for eight days past, 
during Madeley wake. 

" Seeing that I could not suppress these bacchanals, I did all in my 
power to moderate their madness ; but my endeavours have had little 
or no effect. You cannot well imagine how much the animosity of my 
parishioners is heightened, and with what boldness it discovers itself 
against me, because I preached against drunkenness, shows, and bull- 
baiting. The publicans and maltmen will not forgive me. They think 
that to preach against drunkenness, and to cut their purse, is the same 
thing. 

"My church begins not to be so well filled as it has been, and I 
account for it thus : the curiosity of some of my hearers is satisfied, and 
others are offended by the word ; the roads are worse ; and if it shall 
ever please the Lord to pour His Spirit upon us, the time is not yet come. 



Age 32.] Specimens of Fletcher' s First Sermons, 67 



The people, instead of saying, ' Let us go up to the house of the Lord,' 
exclaim, ' Why should we go and hear a Methodist ? ' 

" I should lose all patience with my flock if I had not more reason to 
be satisfied with them than with myself. My own barrenness furnishes 
me with excuses for theirs ; and I wait the time when God shall give 
seed to the sower and increase to the seed sown. In waiting that time, 
I learn the meaning of this prayer, ' Thy will be done.' 

" Believe me your sincere, though unworthy, friend, 

" J. Fletcher." 1 

Fletcher's faithful preaching offended the publicans, and, 
judging of bis sermons in general by the following specimens, 
it is not surprising that his preaching offended others. The 
extracts are taken from a sermon delivered in the month of 
December 1761, and first published in the Dublin edition 
of the Methodist Magazine for 1821 (pp. 249- 2 5 8). 3 The 



1 Letters, 1791, p. 112. 

2 Fletcher seldom wrote his sermons, and more rarely read them. More 
than one hundred and forty sermons of Wesley's have been published, 
and at least sixty of Whitefield's ; but of Fletcher's, who had much 
more leisure than either Wesley or Whitefield, only about a dozen. All 
the rest are mere outlines. The following are copied from Fletcher's 
MSS., and have not before been published. They may be taken as fair 
specimens of Fletcher's pulpit preparations and pulpit helps. They are 
skeletons of two sermons, preached from Matt. xxii. 36-39 : — 

"I. Why we must love God. 

"II. How we must love Him. 

" III. What we must do in order to love Him. 

He is our Creator, Preserver, Redeemer, Sanctifier. He commands 
us to love Him. Out of His love there is no happiness. Love of God 
contains all. He loved us first. 

" With all our soul, heart, and strength. Above all things. More 
than our life, wives, children, estate, honour, ourselves. 

" Be convinced we do not love Him. Abhor ourselves for our rebellion. 
Confess, repent, and believe. Keep a sense of our forgiveness. Pray 
to Him. Praise Him. Walk with Him. Seek but Him. Refuse all 
comfort unless we feel His love. Keep a constant communion with Him 
by seeing His glory in the face of Jesus Christ. 

" How have we fulfilled this great duty ? Try yourselves. Pray an 
hour by yourselves. If you do not love, you hate. What fury to hate 
all that is good, great, and lovely ! What madness to set our love on 
creatures ! It must fall with them. Love God in Christ. Look to 
Christ. Believe in Christ, to love God. If you do not love Him, you are 
in your lives in the devil's state. You can no more go to heaven than 
the devil. Choose which you will love. The world calls. Let us give 
all for all." 

" Love thy neighbour. All men ; though never so distant in place, 
different in opinions, interests. Because made by the same hand ; par- 



68 



Wesley s Designated Successor. 



[176 



text was, " Thou shalt speak My words to them, whether 
they will hear or whether they will forbear, for they are most 
rebellious " (Ezek. ii. 7). After challenging his congrega- 
tion to assert their innocence, Fletcher proceeded : — 

" Supposing you never allowed yourself to dishonour the name of God 
by customary swearing, or grossly to violate His Sabbaths, or commonly 
to neglect the solemnities of His public worship ; supposing, again, that 
you have not injured your neighbours in their lives, their chastity, their 
character, or their property, either by violence or by fraud ; or that you 
never scandalously debased your rational nature by that vile intemper- 
ance which sinks a man below the worst kind of brutes ; supposing all 
this, can you pretend that you have not in smaller instances violated the 
rales of piety, of temperance, and of chastity? Does not your own heart 
prove you guilty of pride, of passion, of sensuality, of an excessive fond- 
ness for the world and its enjoyments ; of murmuring, or at least secretly 
repining, against God under the strokes of an afflictive Providence ; of 
misspending a great deal of your time ; of abusing the gifts of God's 
bounty to vain, and, in some instances, to pernicious purposes ; of 
mocking Him when you have pretended to engage in His worship, 
drawing near to Him with your lips while your heart has been far from 
Him ? Does not your conscience condemn you of some one breach of 
the law at least ? and by one breach of it, does not the Holy Ghost bear 
witness (James ii. 10) that you are become guilty of all, and are as in- 
capable of being justified before God by any obedience of your own, as 
if you had committed ten thousand offences ? But, in reality, there are 
ten thousand and more to be charged to your account. When you come 
to reflect on all your sins of negligence, as well as on your voluntary 
transgressions ; on all the instances in which you have failed to do good 
when it was in your power to do it ; on all the instances in which acts of 
devotion have been omitted, especially in secret ; and on all those cases 
in which you have shown a stupid disregard to the honour of God, and 
to the temporal and eternal happiness of your fellow-creatures ; when all 
these, I say, are reviewed, the number will swell beyond all possibility 
of account, and force you to cry out, ' I am rebellious, most rebellious ; 
mine iniquities are more than the hairs of my head ! * They will appear 



takers of the same nature ; bought with the same blood ; capable of the 
same happiness. 

"As ourselves. Not judging ; not thinking evil ; not speaking evil ; 
not defrauding ; not coveting ; doing them good ; praying for them ; 
honouring them 

" Because all made in image of God. None but in something better 
than ourselves ; none but is a child of God, or may become so. 

"Put the best construction on words or actions, much more upon 
thoughts. Relieve necessities. This is imitating God. What we give 
is lent to God. 

"Love universally, xonstantly, impartially, sincerely; from a sense 
of Christ's love." 



age 32.] Specimens of Fletcher's First Sermons. 69 



in such a light before you that your own heart will charge you with 
countless multitudes ; and how much more then that God, ' who is 
greater than your heart, and knoweth all things ' ? " 

This was plain speaking, but very characteristic of the 
preaching of the Church of England Methodists. Space will 
permit only one other extract from this sermon. 

"And now, sinner, think seriously with yourself what defence you will 
make to all this ? Will you fly in the face of God and that of your con- 
science so openly as to deny one of the charges of rebellion, yea, of 
aggravated rebellion, I have advanced against you ? Have you not 
lifted yourself up against the Lord of heaven ? Have you not sided with 
His sworn enemies — the world and the flesh ? What part of your body, 
what faculty of your soul, have you not employed as an instrument of 
unrighteousness ? When did you live one day before God with the 
dependence of a creature, the gratitude of a redeemed creature, the 
heavenly frame of a sanctified creature ? Nay, when did you live one 
hour without violating God's known law, either in word, or thought, or 
action ? Have not you done it almost continually by the vanity of your 
mind and the hardness of your heart, if not by the open immorality of 
your life ? And, what infinitely aggravates your guilt, have you not de- 
spised and abused God's numberless mercies ? Have you not affronted 
conscience, His deputy in your breast ? Have you not resisted and 
grieved His Spirit ? Yea, have you not trifled with Him in all your pre- 
tended submissions or solemn engagements ? Thousands are, no doubt, 
already in hell whose guilt never equalled yours ; and yet God has spared 
you to see almost the end of another year, and to hear now this plain 
representation of your case. And will you not yet consider ? Shall 
nothing move you to shake off that amazing carelessness and stupid 
disregard of your salvation ? Will you never begin to ' work it out with 
fear and trembling' ? Will you slumber in impenitency till eternal woes 
crush you into destruction ? Is death, is judgment, is the bottomless pit 
so distant that you dare put off from week to week the day of your con- 
version ? You have read in God's Word that there is mercy with Him 
that He may be feared ; but where did you read that there is mercy with 
Him for those who fear Him not ? Show me such a place ; I shall not 
say anywhere in the Bible, but in any book written by a moral heathen. 
And yet you hope you can be saved in this way. 

"Sinner, despise me here if thou wilt; call me here an enthusiast, 
and laugh at the concern I feel for thy perishing soul ; but hereafter 
thou wilt do me justice, clear me before the Lord Jesus, and acknowledge 
that thy blood is upon thine own head, that thou art undone because 
thou wouldst'be undone, because thou wouldst take neither warning nor 
reproof." 

To give the reader a further idea of the faithfulness and 
searching character of Fletcher's preaching at this early 



7o 



Wesley's Designated Successor. [1762. 



period of his Madeley ministry, the subjoined extracts are 
given from sermons preached during the first three months 
of 1762. 

In January, 1762, 1 he delivered a discourse upon the 
words, "Ye will not come unto Me, that ye might have life;" 
in which he described " four classes of sinners who will not 
come to Christ that they might have life;" and proved "that 
unbelief, or not coming to Christ for life, is the most abomi- 
nable and damning of all sins." One brief extract on the 
latter point must suffice : — 

" Unbelief is a sin of so deep a dye that the devils in hell cannot com- 
mit the like. Our Saviour never prayed, wept, bled, and died for devils. 
He never said to them, ' Ye will not come unto Me, that ye might have 
life.' They can never be so madly ungrateful as to slight a Saviour. 
Mercy never wooed their stubborn, proud hearts as it does ours. They 
have abused grace, it is true, but they never trampled mercy underfoot. 
This more than diabolical sin is reserved for thee, careless sinner. Now 
thou hearest Christ compassionately say in the text, ' Ye will not come 
unto Me,' and thou remaihest unmoved; but the time cometh when 
Jesus, who meekly entreats, shall sternly curse-; when He who in tender 
patience says, 'Ye will not come unto Me,' shall thunder in righteous 
vengeance, ' Depart from Me, ye cursed; depart unto the second death, 
— the fire prepared for the devil and his angels.' In vain wilt thou plead 
then as thou dost now, ' Lord, I am no adulterer ; I am no extortioner ; 
I used to eat at Thy table ; I was baptized in Thy name ; I was a true 
churchman ; there are many worse than I am.' This will not admit thee 
into the kingdom of Christ. His answer will be, 'I know you not; you 
never came to Me for life.' " 

Plain preaching such as this was not likely to please the 
easy-going Pharisees of the age in which Fletcher lived, any 
more than it is likely to be popular among the same class of 
people at the present day. To utter such truths required 
courage then ; and it requires courage now. Fletcher, one of 
the gentlest of human beings, possessed this courage. 

No doubt there were many occasions when his sermons 
were full of the richest comfort to those who had truly 
repented, and unfeignedly believed Christ's holy Gospel; but 
he never failed faithfully to fulfil an Old Testament commis- 
sion, binding upon the ministers of God throughout all time: 
" Cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and 



Methodist Magazine, 1821, p. 651. 



Age 32.] 



Specimens of Fletcher s First Sermons. 



71 



show My people their transgression, and the house of Jacob 
their sins " (Isa. lviii. 1). 

At the risk of wearying the reader, further extracts must 
be given, exemplifying Fletcher's fearless fidelity. 

On January 4, 1762, England declared war against Spain; 
and, a few days after, proclamations were issued for a general 
fast to be observed in England, Scotland, Wales, and Ireland, 
in the month of March. 1 Fletcher, as a loyal Churchman, 
preached on this occasion ; 2 his text was Ezek. xxxiii. 7-9. 
After a few preliminary remarks respecting the king's " pious 
proclamation," he proceeds to say, — 

"We must attack, unmask, and overthrow vice with holy violence, 
and strike at the heart of sin with the boldness of John the Baptist, and 
in the spirit of Elijah. Without any apology for my plainness, I shall 
endeavour to convince the wicked man both of his wickedness and 
danger." 

Fletcher begins with " practical atheists " 

"Thousands there are, who, by gross ignorance, shameful neglect of 
instruction, and abominable contempt of godliness, are in the front of 
the battle, and next to the prince of darkness. Their heart is darkened 
by the mists of pride and the clouds of presumption, and they are such 
utter strangers to their want of spiritual light and divine grace, that 
they seldom or never call upon God for help with any solemnity. The 
unhappy heathenish families who are of that stamp meet regularly every 
day to eat, drink, and make provision for the flesh ; but how seldom do 
they meet to read and pray. You will find almost as much godliness 
among the wild Indians as among these practical atheists. But why 
should I call them atheists ? They have many gods. The world is 
their god ; pleasure is their god ; vanity is their god ; money is their 
god ; their belly is their god ; to some or other of these idols, they 
sacrifice their hearts and their time. As for the God of heaven, the 
great and eternal Jehovah, they put Him off with a careless attendance 
on His public worship on Sunday morning, if the weather suits them ; 
and it is well if to this they add sometimes the babbling over of the 
Lord's Prayer and the Creed, which, after all, in the manner in which 
they do it, is no better than a solemn mockery of the Saviour, whom 
they constantly crucify afresh. Do you belong to such a heathenish, 
prayerless family ? If you do, suffer me to deliver my soul by telling 
you, that you are the very first person to whom I am bound to say, 
'Thou shalt'surely die.' Read your sentence in Psalm lxxix. 6. What! 
shall the indignation of the Lord fall upon prayerless families among 



1 London Magazine, 1762, p. 48. 

2 % Wesleyan Methodist Magazine, 1822, p. 153. 



72 



Wesley s Designated Success jr. 



[1762. 



the heathen, and shall it pass by the nominally Christian, but prayerless 
family to which you belong ? No, no ; the Judge of all the earth will 
do right ; He will repay you to your face." 

" The wicked is often known, to others and to himself, by his injustice, 
oppression, cruelty, deceit, and unfair dealing. Did you ever make a 
prey of the poor and helpless ? Are you like the horse-leech, crying, 
' Give, give,' still wanting more profit, and never thinking you have 
enough ? Do you take more care to lay up treasures on earth than in 
heaven ? Have you got the unhappy secret of distilling silver out of 
the poor man's brow, and gold out of the tears of helpless widows and 
friendless orphans ? Or, which is rather worse, do you, directly or 
indirectly, live by poisoning others, by encouraging the immoderate use 
of those refreshments, which, taken to excess, disorder the reason, ruin 
the soul, and prove no better than slow poison to the body ? If your 
business calls you to buy or sell, do you use falsehood ? do you equivo- 
cate ? do you exaggerate or conceal the truth, in order to impose upon 
your neighbour, and make a profit of his necessity or credulity ? If 
any of these marks be upon you, God's word singles you out, and drags 
you to the bar of Divine justice to hear your doom in the text, ' The 
wicked shall surely die.' O, see your danger ; repent, and make resti- 
tution ! Why should you meet the unjust steward in hell, when you 
may yet follow Zaccheus into heaven ? ' ' 

" There is another fearful sin, which has in it no profit, no pleasure, 
no, not sensual sweetness enough to bait the hook of temptation. The 
only enticement to it is the diabolical disposition of the wicked man, 
and the horrid pride he takes in cutting a figure among the children 
of Belial. I speak of oaths and curses, — those arrows shot from the 
string of a hellish heart, and the bow of a Luciferian tongue, against 
heaven itself ; these are some of the sparks of hell-fire, which, now and 
then, come out of the throat of a wicked man. Do they ever come out 
of thine ? A year ago, I laid before you the horror of that sin, and 
besought you to leave it to Satan and his angels, and to act no more 
the part of an incarnate devil. Have you strictly complied with that 
request ? Has not heaven been pierced with another fiery dart ? Have 
not good men, or good angels (if any attend you still) shuddered at 
those imprecations, which you have used, perhaps without remorse ?" 

" But, perhaps, your conscience bears you witness that you are not a 
swearing Christian, or rather a swearing infidel. Well ; but are you 
clear in the point of adultery, fornication, or uncleanness ? Does not 
the guilt of some vile sin, which you have wickedly indulged in time 
past, and perhaps are still indulging, mark you for the member of a 
harlot, and not the member of Christ ? Do you not kindle the wrath of 
heaven against yourself and your country, as the men and women of 
Gomorrah did against themselves and the other cities of the plain ? If 
you cherish the sparks of wantonness, as they did, how can you but be 
made with them to suffer the vengeance of eternal fire ? Do not flatter 
yourselves with the vain hope, that your sin is not so heinous as theirs. 
If it be less in degree, is it not infinitely greater in its aggravating 



Age 32.] Specimens of Fletcher 1 s First Sermons. 73 



circumstances ? Were these poor Canaanites Christians ? Had they 
Bibles and ministers ? Had they sermons and sacraments ? Did they 
ever vow, as you have done, to renounce the devil, and all the sinful 
lusts of the flesh ? Did they ever hear of the Son of God sweating great 
drops of blood, in an agony of prayer, to quench the fire of human 
corruption ? O acknowledge your guilt and danger, and, by deep repent- 
ance, prevent infallible destruction. 

" I cannot pass in silence the detestable, though fashionable, sin, 
which has brought down the curse of heaven, and poured desolation 
and ruin upon the most flourishing kingdoms, — I mean pride in apparel. 
Even in this place, where poverty, hard labour, and drudgery would, 
one should think, prevent a sin which Christianity cannot tolerate even 
in kings' houses, there are not wanting foolish virgins, who draw iniquity 
with cords of vanity, and betray the levity of their hearts by that of their 
dress. Yea, some women, who should be mothers in Israel, and adorn 
themselves with good works as holy and godly matrons, openly affect 
the opposite character. You may see them offer themselves first to the 
idol of vanity, and then sacrifice their children upon the same altar. 
As some sons of Belial teach their little ones to curse, before they can 
well speak, so these daughters of Jezebel drag their unhappy offspring, 
before they can walk, to the haunts of vanity and pride. They complain 
of evening lectures, but run to midnight dancings. O that such persons 
would let the prophet's words sink into their frothy minds, and fasten 
upon their careless hearts : ' Because the daughters of Sion are haughty, 
and walk with stretched-forth necks and wanton eyes, the Lord will 
smite with a sore the crown of their head, and discover their shame : 
instead of well-set hair, there shall be baldness, and burning instead of 
beauty. ' " 

These abbreviated extracts of Fletcher's descriptions of 
"the wicked" are followed by his directions to humble them- 
selves before Almighty God ; to confess their sins with deep 
sorrow, and to return to the Lord with prayer and fasting ; 
to meditate on the universality, commonness, and boldness 
of the nation's wickedness ; to begin a visible and thorough 
reformation ; and to seek personal salvation in Christ. The 
bold preacher cries : — 

" From the gilded palace to the thatched cottage, our guilt calls for 
vengeance. Wickedness is become so fashionable, that he who refuses 
to run with others into vanity, intemperance, or profaneness, is in danger 
of losing his character, on one hand ; while, on the other, the son of 
Belial prides himself in excesses, glories in diabolical practices, and 
scoffs with impunity at religion and virtue. O England ! England ! 
happy, yet ungrateful island ! Dost thou repay fruitfulness by pro- 
faneness, — plenty by vanity, — liberty by impiety, — and the light of 
Christianity by excesses of immorality ? 



74 



Wesley s Designated Successor. 



[1762. 



" As you regard the prosperity of the king, the good of our Church, 
and the welfare of our country ; — as you would not bring a private curse 
upon yourself, your house, and your dearest friends ; — as you value the 
honour of Almighty God, and dread His awakened wrath ; — as you would 
not force Him to make our land a field of blood, or to break the staff of 
our bread, and send famine, pestilence, popery, or some other fearful 
judgment among us ; — I pray you, I beseech, I entreat each of you, my 
dear brethren ! as upon my bended knees, — in the name of our Lord 
Jesus, and by those bowels of Divine mercy against which we have 
madly kicked in times past, and which, nevertheless, still yearn over 
us, — I entreat you not to rest in outward humiliation and reformation. 
Christians must go one step beyond the Ninevites. O seek then, with 
all true Christians, a righteousness superior to that of the Scribes and 
Pharisees. Seek it in Christ. Never rest, till you are sure of your 
interest in Him ; till you feel the virtue of His blood applied to your 
hearts by the power of His Spirit. Without this, all the rest will stand 
you in little stead." 1 

This, in truth, was thunder and lightning preaching, — no 
doubt greatly needed then, as, indeed, it is greatly needed 
now ; preaching likely to give offence, but the faithfulness 
of which God always honours, and crowns with marked 
success. It raised up against Fletcher bitter enemies ; but 
it was the means of converting not a few of his godless 
parishioners. 

One of these was Mary Matthews, who, listening to the 
reproaches cast upon Fletcher, was greatly prejudiced against 
him. At length, she went to hear him. Mary thought her- 
self very good, but Fletcher showed she was very vile. For 
two years, she was an earnest penitent, and then, by faith in 
Christ, found peace with God. Mary was brought before 
magistrates for opening her little house, in Madeley Wood, 
for preaching, but she continued faithful; and, in 1788, 
passed away to heaven, her last words being, " I am almost 
at home. Farewell ! God bless you ! God for ever bless 
you !" 

Another was Mary Barnard, who lived to the age of 
ninety, was very lame, but always crawled to Madeley 
church when the weather would permit. Totally without 
education herself, she had a son who became a Methodist 
local preacher. Her death occurred in 1797, and her last 



1 Wesley an Methodist Magazine, 1822, p. 222. 



Age 52.] 



Answers to an Objection. 



75 



message to Fletcher's widow was, — u The covenant is signed 
and sealed between my Lord and me. I am His by a 
marriage bond ; and He is mine. And now I set to my 
seal, that the blood of Jesus cleanses from all sin." 1 

Such conversions were among Fletcher's encouragements ; 
and he greatly needed them. His preaching saved some, 
but offended others. In one of his unpublished manuscripts, 
dated " Madeiey, February 28, 1762," he notes a somewhat 
remarkable occurrence : — 

"Last Sundav, only one objection was made against the doctrine I 
preached in this church, and that, I think, was a poor one, as it was 
supported by no argument and no Scripture. The sum of it was this, 
' It is hard to say that one breach of the law brings a man under the 
curse, and exposes one out of Christ to the damnation of hell.' To this 
I answer by four arguments. 

" The first is taken from matters of fact in the Word of God. By one 
sin, and by the offence of one, condemnation came upon all men, 
namely by the one sin of Adam's eating the forbidden fruit. And a 
more awful example you have in the sudden destruction of Ananias and 
Sapphira his wife for having told one single lie. 

" The second argument is taken from common sense, which tells us 
that one leak in a ship unstopped will sink it in time, as certainly as 
a hundred; one piece broken out of a glass makes it a useless glass, 
as much as if it was dashed into twenty pieces ; one stab of a dagger 
through the heart kills a man as much as a hundred would. And so 
one sin uncancelled by Christ's blood will as surely destroy an uncon- 
verted man as a hundred, though his destruction will not be so terrible 
. as that of him who has committed a hundred. 

" The third argument is taken from the exactness of human laws and 
the practice of earthly judges. They all condemn a man for one single 
offence. If one can be proved it is enough. Let a murderer kill one 
man, he is to be hanged as well as if he had killed a hundred. Let 
a highwayman take one pound from one single person, the law con- 
demns him for a felon, and sends him to the gallows, as well as if he 
had taken a thousand pounds from a thousand different travellers. The 
law of the land, to the breach of which the penalty is annexed, is as 
effectually broken by one act of felony as by a hundred ; and the law of 
God is as much, though not so heinously, broken, by one sin as by 
a hundred : consequently the law of God curses and damns for one sin 
as well as for a hundred. 

" The fourth argument is taken from Deuteronomy xxvii. 26, ' Cursed 
be he that confirmeth not all the words of this law to do them.' Also, 
Galatians iii. 10, ' Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things 
which are written in the book of the law, to do them.' And James ii. 10, 



Methodist Magazine, 1800, pp. 219 — 223. 



76 



Wesley* s Designated Successor. ' [1762. 



' Whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he 
is guilty of all.' He violates the law, despises the law, incurs the 
punishment threatened." 

Passing by Fletcher's arguments and logic, this fugitive 
manuscript is of some importance, as intimating not only 
that objections were made to Fletcher's doctrines, but also 
that he was accustomed publicly to notice and answer them 
in his parish church. 

Fletcher had other troubles besides those arising from 
objections to his teaching. In his Fast-day sermon, preached 
on March 12, 1762, he had cried : — 

' "'Because of swearing the land mourneth.' If the prophet of old 
had lived in our degenerate days, he would have added, ' Because of 
perjury the land groaneth.' To go no farther than the place we inhabit, 
how many of us, who have been entrusted with public offices, have 
wilfully broken the oaths administered unto us ? How many open and 
notorious drunkards, fighters, sabbath-breakers, blasphemers of God's 
Word, and cursers of men, have escaped deserved censure, I shall not 
say by the accidental neglect, but by the downright perjury of officers ? ' ' 

This bold accusation stimulated one of Fletcher's young 
parishioners to put the law in force against one of the 
culpable parish officers ; by which act the young man 
brought himself into trouble, and also Fletcher, who pro- 
tected him. 

Further, in the small house of Mary Matthews, built upon 
the rock in Madeley Wood, Fletcher had begun to hold 
preaching services ; the congregation assembling there had 
been called "the Rock Church;" and Mary Matthews had 
been fined £20 for permitting such assemblies in her humble 
dwelling. Fletcher refers to these incidents in the following 
letter to Charles Wesley : — 

"Madeley, May 16, 1762. 

" Since my last, our troubles have increased. A young man having 
put in force the Act, for suppressing swearing, against a parish officer, 
he stirred up all the other half gentlemen to remove him from the parish. 
Here I interposed, and, to do so with effect, I took the young man into 
my sendee. By God's grace, I have been enabled to conduct myself, in 
this matter, so as to give them no handle against me ; and, in spite of 
all their cabals, I have got the better of them. 

"What has greatly encouraged them is the behaviour of a magir 
strate, who was at the first inclined to favour me, but afterwards turned 



Age 32.] Unpublished Letter to a Papist. 77 



against me with peculiar malevolence, and proceeded so far as to 
threaten me and all my flock of the Rock Church with imprisonment. 
Hitherto, the Lord has stood by me, and my little difficulties are nothing 
to me ; but I fear I support them rather like a philosopher than a Chris- 
tian. We were to have been mobbed with a drum last Tuesday, at the 
Rock Church ; but their captain, a papist, behaved himself so very ill, 
that they were ashamed of him, and are made peaceable for the 
present." 1 

Fletcher wrote to this persecuting papist the following 
letter, which is now for the first time published : — 

" Sir, — The indecent and profane manner in which you broke upon 
those of my parishioners who came to me for private exhortations at 
Mrs. Matthews', lays me under an absolute obligation to present you 
at Ludlow Court as a person notoriously guilty — 1, Of drunkenness ; 
2, of cursing ; 3, of disturbing me in the discharge of the private labours 
of my ministry ; 4, of profane disregard to the Liturgy of the Established 
Church; 5, of want of respect for the Royal Family, openly intimated 
in indecent interruption while I prayed for them, and obliging me to 
get up from my knees and make you go out of the room before I could 
conclude the collect in peace ; and 6, of cursing, and making game of 
the Third Person of the Holy Trinity. 

"Though I told you upon the spot, that you should be informed of 
for your profane behaviour, I think it my duty to acquaint you of it 
more particularly, that you may prepare your answers to the above 
mentioned charges. 

" I assure you, Sir, that malice, or any private pique, is entirely out 
of the question. I heartily wish you well, and am ready to do you any 
service but that of sacrificing the interests of religion and virtue to open 
profaneness and immorality. 

"The following considerations weigh much with me to make me 
insist on the churchwardens putting you in their presentment ; and 
they will, I hope, convince you that I act only according to the dictates 
of Christian prudence. 

"1. Most of the things laid to your charge were grown into habit 
before they broke out in my presence. It is not the first time that you 
have been seen in liquor, and been heard to use profane expressions, and 
to make sport of the things of God, and turn my labours into ridicule. 

"2. So public an offence absolutely demands a public punishment, 
and the officers, whom I have informed of your behaviour, must be 
perjured if they present you not, and an irreparable blow will be given 
to the honour of religion and morality. 

"3. The regard I have for our Church, and the peace of the parish, 
obliges me to resist in you the persecuting spirit of opposition your 
Church is so noted for. 



1 Letters, 1791, p. 114. 



78 Wesley's Designated Successor, [1762. 



"4. Part of my business here as a clergyman of the Church of 
England is to withstand the propagation of your dangerous principles, 
and to oppose the increase of the blind persecuting zeal which some 
seem to breathe after you. If you are suffered openly to excite that 
profane zeal with impunity, how will your misled companions be con- 
firmed in their errors. If you, who have so many laws to curb you, can 
offend with impunity, how daring will others grow in wickedness. 

"5. A person of note in the parish has lately undergone the severity 
of the law for part of the above-mentioned charges. What intolerable 
partiality would it be in the officers and me to take no notice of you who 
are guilty of the whole. 

"Lastly. If I do not get you presented, I shall for ever deprive 
myself of the liberty of repressing profaneness, immorality, and perse- 
cution in my parish. Every drunkard, every swearer, every railer, etc., 
etc., will (and not without reason) say to me, 'You could spare Mr. 
Haughton, who was notoriously guilty of our errors ; why should 3^011 be 
stricter with Protestants than with Papists ? ' 

" I flatter myself that these reasons will convince you that I am led 
by Christian prudence and a calm resolution to oppose triumphing pro- 
faneness, and not at all by any private views or uncharitable motives. 
And, wishing that, if you are convicted, the course of human laws may 
lead you to the harbour of temperance and piety, 

" I remain, Sir, your humble and obedient servant, 

"]. Fletcher." 

Of course, opinions differ as to the expediency of trying 
to make men moral by Acts of Parliament ; but there can 
be no doubt of Fletcher's Christian sincerity in the action 
he took against Mr. Haughton. His effort, however, was a 
failure. Writing to Charles Wesley, in the month of July, 
I 762, he said : — 

" Your letter arrived some days too late, to prevent my taking a false 
step respecting the papist in question. Three weeks ago, I went to Ludlow 
to the Bishop's visitation, and I thought the occasion favourable for my 
purpose ; but the churchwardens, when we were on the spot, refused to 
support me, and the court has paid no regard to my presentation. Thus 
I have gained some experience, though at my own cost. The sermon 
did not touch the string with which I was whipped at the last visitation ; 
and I afterwards had the boldness to go and dine with the Bishop. 

" Many of my parishioners are strangely disconcerted at my bringing 
my gown back from Ludlow. With respect to the magistrate I men- 
tioned to you in my last, because he acted as judge of the circuit two 
years ago, he now believes himself as able a lawyer as Judge Foster ; 
but, for the present, he contents himself with threatenings. I met him 
the other day, and, after he had called me Jesuit, etc., and menaced 
me with his cane, he assured me that he would soon put down our 
assemblies. How ridiculous is this impotent rage ! 



Age 32.] 



More Persecutions. 



79 



" I have attempted to form a Society, and, in spite of much opposition 
and many difficulties, I hope to succeed. I preach, I exhort, I pray ; 
but, as yet, I seem to have cast the net on the wrong side of the ship. 
Lord Jesus, come Thyself, and furnish me with a Divine commission ! 

" For some months past, I have laboured under an insuperable drowsi- 
ness : I could sleep day and night ; and the hours which I ought to 
employ with Christ on the mount, I spend like Peter in the garden." 1 

Poor Fletcher's troubles continued and increased. A month 
later, he wrote again to Charles Wesley, as follows : — 

"I have still trials of all sorts. First, spiritual ones. My heart is 
hard; I have not that contrition, that filial fear, that sweet, humble melt- 
ing of heart before the Lord, which I consider essential to Christianity. 

" Secondly, the opposition made to my ministry increases. A young 
clergyman, who lives in Madeley Wood, where he has great influence, 
has openly declared war against me, by pasting on the church door a 
paper, in which he charges me with rebellion, schism, and being a 
disturber of the public peace. He puts himself at the head of the 
gentlemen of the parish (as they term themselves), and, supported by 
the Recorder of Wenlock, he is determined to put in force the Conventicle 
Act against me. A few weeks ago, the widow who lives in the Rock 
Church, and a young man, who read and prayed in my absence, were 
taken up. I attended them before the magistrate, and the young clergy- 
man with his troop were present. They called me Jesuit, etc. ; and 
the magistrate tried to frighten me, by saying that he would put the 
Act in force, though we should assemble only in my own house. I 
pleaded my cause as well as I could ; but, seeing he was determined 
to hear no reason, I told him he must do as he pleased, and that, if the 
Act in question concerned us, we were ready to suffer all its rigours. 
In his rage, he went the next day to Wenlock, and proposed to grant a 
warrant to have me apprehended ; but, as the other magistrates were 
of opinion that the business did not come under their cognizance, but 
belonged to the Spiritual Court, he was obliged to swallow his spittle 
alone. 

"Mr. Madan, 2 whom I have consulted, tells me the Act may be 
enforced against the mistress of the house, the young man, and all who 
were present. The churchwardens talk of putting me in the Spiritual 
Court for meeting in houses, etc. ; but what is worst of all, three false 
witnesses offer to prove upon oath that I am a liar ; and some of my 
follozvers (as they are called) have dishonoured their profession, to the 
great joy of our adversaries. 

" In the midst of these difficulties I have reason to bless the Lord, 
that my heart is not troubled. Forget me not in your prayers." 3 



1 Letters, 1791, p. 115. 

2 The Rev. Martin Madan, who, before he became a clergyman, was 
a barrister-at-law. 

3 Letters, 1791, p. 117. 



8o Wesley' 's Designated Successor, [1762. 



All this braggart persecution seems to have ended in 
threats. Fletcher wrote again to Charles Wesley, on Novem- 
ber 22, 1762 : — 

"The debates about the illegality of exhorting in houses (although 
only in my own parish) grew some time ago to such a height, that I 
was obliged to lay my reasons before the Bishop ; but his lordship very 
prudently sends me no answer. I think he knows not how to disapprove, 
and yet dares not approve this methodistical way of procedure." 1 

Such is a bird's-eye view of Fletcher's ministry and minis- 
terial trials during the first two years after his appointment 
to the living of Madeley in 1760. As an earnest evangelical 
clergyman of the Church of England, he almost stood alone. 
Shropshire had produced one like-minded minister ; but he, 
the Rev. Mr. Hatton, was now in the Isle of Man. To this 
gentleman, Fletcher, in his solitude, wrote as follows : — 

" Madeley, August 4, 1762. 
"Rev. Sir, — There are so few of our profession in this county who 
are not ashamed of the cross of Christ, and of the Homilies and Articles 
of our Church, that it gave me no small pleasure to hear 3'Ou are not 
led away with the generality into dry empty notions of morality and 
formality, — the two legs on which fashionable religion stalks through 
this so-called Christian land. May the Lord Jesus convince us daily 
more and more, by His Spirit, of sin in ourselves, and of righteousness 
in Him ! May we, in the strength of our dying Samson, pull down the 
buildings of self- righteousness, though the consequence should be to 
see all our hopes of preferment and esteem buried in the ruins ! May 
we never be led to preach another Gospel than that of Christ ! ' He 
that believeth shall be saved; he that believeth not shall be damned' 
(Mark xvi. 16). 

"I hope, Sir, you will not be discouraged. Regard not the wind, 
but sow your seed early and late ; and the Lord of the harvest will give 
the increase, as seemeth best to His heavenly wisdom. I meet with 
many trials in my parish, but our faithful Lord opens always a door 
for me to escape ; and so He will for you. 

" I should be thankful to Providence, if your way should be made 
plain into this neighbourhood. You owe yourself to Shropshire in par- 
ticular ; and no county needs hands for the spiritual harvest more than 
this does. I pray that the Lord of the harvest may thrust you among us. 

" I bespeak a sermon when you come to Salop ; trusting that you will 
not be ashamed to bear witness to the truth as it is in Jesus, from so 



1 Letters, 1791, p. 124. 



Age 32.] Gilpin on Fletcher' 's Early Ministry, 8 r 



despised a pulpit as that of, dear Sir, your affectionate and weak fellow 
servant in the Gospel, 

"J. Fletcher." 1 

Fletcher longed for clerical sympathy and .co-operation ; 
but he had to wait for them. In all respects his position 
was a trying one. The Rev. Mr. Gilpin, who afterwards was 
well acquainted with him, writes : — 

" Celebrated for the extensive ironworks carried on within its limits, 
Madeley was remarkable for little else than the ignorance and profane- 
ness of its inhabitants, among whom respect to man was as rarely to be 
observed as piety towards God. In this benighted place, the Sabbath 
was openly profaned, and the most holy things contemptuously trampled 
under foot ; even the restraints of decency were violently broken through, 
and the external form of religion held up as a subject of ridicule. 

" Immediately upon his settling in this populous village, Mr. Fletcher 
entered upon the duties of his vocation with an extraordinary degree of 
earnestness and zeal. He saw the difficulties of his situation, and the 
reproaches to which he should be exposed by a conscientious discharge 
of the pastoral office ; but, as a steward of the manifold grace of God, 
he faithfully dispensed the word of life, according as every man had 
need ; instructing the ignorant, reasoning with gainsayers, exhorting 
the immoral, and rebuking the obstinate. Not content with discharging 
the stated duties of the Sabbath, he counted every day as lost in which 
he was not actually employed in the service of the Church. As often as 
a small congregation could be collected, he joyfully proclaimed to them 
the acceptable year of the Lord, whether it were in the church, in a 
private house, or in the open air." 

"It was a common thing, in his parish, for young persons of both 
sexes to meet together for what was called recreation ; and that recrea- 
tion usually continued from evening to morning, consisting chiefly in 
dancing, revelling, drunkenness, and obscenity. These licentious assem- 
blies he considered a disgrace to the Christian name, and determined 
to exert his ministerial authority for their total suppression. Frequently 
he burst in upon them with a holy indignation, making war upon Satan 
in places peculiarly appropriated to his service." 

" His enemies wrested his words, misrepresented his actions, and 
cast out his name as evil ; but whether he was insulted in his person, 
or injured in his property ; whether he was attacked with open abuse, 
or pursued by secret calumny, he walked amid the most violent assaults 
of his enemies, as a man invulnerable ; and while his firmness discovered 
that he was unhurt, his forbearance testified that he was unoffended." 

" Had he aimed at celebrity as a public speaker, furnished as he was 
with the united powers of learning, genius, and taste, he might have 



1 Wesley an Methodist Magazine, 1829, p. 175. 

6 



82 



Wesley^ s Designated Successor. 



[1762. 



succeeded beyond many ; ^feut his design was to convert and not to 
captivate his hearers; to secure their eternal interests, and not to obtain 
their momentary applause/ Hence his 'speech and his preachingwere 
not with enticing words of 'man 's wisdom, but in de?nonstration of the 
Spirit and of power' He spake as in the presence of God r and taught 
as one having Divine authority. There was an energy"m his preaching 
that was irresistible. His subjects, his language, his gestures, the tone 
of his voice, and the turn of his countenance, all conspired to fix the 
attention and affect the heart. Without aiming at sublimity, he was 
truly sublime ; and uncommonly eloquent without affecting the orator." 1 

Such is the testimony of a gentleman who, for a season, 
lived in Fletcher's house, and for many years lived in the 
neighbourhood of Fletcher's parish. It would be worse than 
foolish to add anything to it, except the remarks of Fletcher's 
friend and first biographer, John Wesley : — 

" Mr. Fletcher settled at Madeley in the year 1760, and from the 
beginning he was a laborious workman in his Lord's vineyard. At his 
first settling there, the hearts of several were unaccountably set against 
him, insomuch that he was constrained to warn some of these that if 
they did not repent God would speedily cut them off. And the truth of 
these predictions was shown over and over by the signal accomplishment 
of them. 2 But no opposition could hinder him from going on his Master's 
work, and suppressing vice in every possible manner. Those sinners 
who endeavoured to hide themselves from him he pursued to every corner 
of his parish by all sorts of means, public and private, early and late, in 
season and out of season, entreating and warning them to flee from the 
wrath to come. Some made it an excuse for not attending church that 
they could not awake early enough to get their families ready. He pro- 
vided for this also.QTaking a bell in his hand, he set out every Sunday 
at five in the morning, and went round the most distant parts of the 
parish, inviting all the inhabitants to the house of God J 

"Yet, notwithstanding all the pains he took, he saw for some time 
little fruit of his labour; insomuch that he was more than once in doubt 



1 "The Portrait of St. Paul." 

2 Jonathan Crowther, President of the Methodist Conference in 1819, 
relates, in his unpublished autobiography, the following anecdote : " Mrs. 
Fletcher told me that one Sunday, after the forenoon service, Mr. Preston, 
a gentleman farmer near Madeley, very grossly insulted Mr. Fletcher in 
the churchyard, and evinced great enmity against his faithful ministry. 
In his sermon in the afternoon, Mr. Fletcher said, he had a powerful 
impression that before the next Sabbath God would give a signal mark 
of His displeasure against the enemies of His cause and truth. The 
week was drawing to a close ; nothing remarkable had happened ; but 
on Saturday night, Mr. Preston, when returning home from market in a - 
state of intoxication, fell from his horse and died on the spot." 



Age 32.] Wesley on Fletcher 1 s Early Ministry. 



83 



whether he had not mistaken his place ; whether God had indeed called 
him to confine himself to one town, or to labour more at large in His 
vineyard. He was not free from this doubt when a multitude of people 
flocked together at a funeral. He seldom let these awful opportunities 
slip without giving a solemn exhortation. At the close of the exhorta- 
tion which was then given, one man was so grievously offended that 
he could not refrain from breaking out into scurrilous, yea, menacing 
language. But, notwithstanding all his struggling against it, the Word 
fastened upon his heart. At first, indeed, he roared like a lion ; but he 
soon wept like a child. Not long after, he came to Mr. Fletcher in the 
most humble manner, asking pardon for his outrageous behaviour, and 
begging an interest in his prayers. This was such a refreshment as he 
stood in need of. In a short time, this poor broken-hearted sinner was 
filled with joy unspeakable. He then spared no pains in exhorting his 
fellow- sinners to flee from the wrath to come. 

" It was not long after, when, one Sunday evening, Mr. Fletcher, after 
performing the usual duty at Madeley, was about to set out for Madeley 
Wood, to preach and catechise as usual. But just then notice was 
brought (which should have been given before) that a child was to be 
buried. His waiting till the child was brought prevented his going to 
the wood ; and herein the providence of God appeared. For, at this 
very time, many of the colliers, who neither feared God nor regarded 
men, were baiting a bull just by the meeting-house ; and, having had 
plenty to drink, they had all agreed, as soon as he came, to bait the 
■parson. Part of them were appointed to pull him off his horse, and the 
rest to set the dogs upon him. One of these very men afterwards con- 
fessed that he was with them when this agreement was made ; and that 
afterwards, while they were in the most horrid manner cursing and 
swearing at their disappointment, a large china punch-bowl, which held 
above a gallon, without any apparent cause (for it was not touched by 
any person or thing) fell all to shivers. This so alarmed him that he 
forsook all his companions, and determined to save his own soul." 1 



1 Wesley's "Life of Fletcher. 



84 Wesley* s Designated Successor, [1762. 



CHAPTER V. 

THREE QUIET, SUCCESSFUL YEARS. 
1762 — 1765. 

IN the autumn of 1762 Methodism in London was in 
perilous confusion. Two years before, Wesley had 
appointed Thomas Maxfield, one of his first preachers, to 
meet a select band, who professed to be entirely sanctified. 
Some of the members of this band soon had dreams, visions 
and impressions, as they thought, from God ; and Maxfield, 
instead of repressing their whimsies, encouraged them, so 
that their vagaries were soon regarded as proofs of the highest 
state of grace. Some of the preachers rebuked these visionaries. 
This excited resentment, and they refused to hear their 
rebukers preach. They became the avowed followers of 
Maxfield, who told them they were not to be taught by man, 
and especially by those who had less grace than themselves. 
George Bell, converted in 1758, and sanctified in 1 761, 
joined themj and became wilder than the wildest of them. 
The result was, when Wesley returned to London in October, 
1762, he found the Society there in a disgraceful uproar, and 
the followers of Maxfield and Bell formed into a sort of 
detached connexion. 1 They called themselves "the witnesses." 
Wesley and his brother were in great distress. The latter 
wrote to Fletcher, and received the following reply : — 

"Madeley, September 20, 1762. 
Crede quod habes, et habes? is not very different from those words 
of Christ, ' What things soever ye desire, when ye fir ay, believe that 
ye receive them, and ye shall have them.' The humble reason of the 
believer, and the irrational presumption of the enthusiast, draw this 



1 For a fuller account of this unhappy schism, see Tyerman's "Life 
and Times of Wesley," vol. ii.,PP« 432-444. 



age 33.] Fanaticism among the London Methodists. 85 



doctrine to the right hand or the left ; but to split the hair — here lies the 
difficulty. I have told you that I am no party man ; I am neither for 
nor against the witness for Christian perfection without examination. 
I complain of those who deceive themselves ; I honour those who do 
honour to their profession ; and I wish we could find out the right way 
of reconciling the most profound humility with the most lively hopes of 
grace. I think you insist on the one and Maxfield on the other ; and 
I believe you both sincere in your views. God bless you both ; and if 
either of you goes too far, may the Lord bring him back ! " 1 

" Madeley, November 22, 1762. 

" Brother Ley 2 arrived here yesterday, and confirms the melancholy 
news of many of our brethren overshooting sober and steady Christianity 
in London. I feel a great deal for you and the Church in these critical 
circumstances. Oh that I could stand in the gap ! Oh that I could, 
by sacrificing myself, shut this immense abyss of enthusiasm which opens 
its mouth among us ! 

" The corruption of the best things is always the worst of corruptions. 
Going into an extreme of this nature, or only winking at it, will give an 
eternal sanction to the vile aspersions cast on all sides on the purest 
doctrines of Christianity ; and we shall sadly overthrow, overthrow in 
the worst manner, what we have endeavoured to build for many years. 

" I have a particular regard for Maxfield and Bell — both of them are 
my correspondents. I am strongly prejudiced in favour of the witnesses, 
and do not willingly receive what is said against them ; but allowing 
that what is reported is one-half mere exaggeration, the tenth part of 
the rest shows that spiritual pride, presumption, arrogance, stubborn- 
ness, party spirit, uncharitableness, prophetic mistakes, in short, every 
sinew of enthusiasm is now at work in many of that body. I do not 
credit any one's bare word, but I ground my sentiments on Bell's own 
letters. 

" May I presume to lay before you my mite of observation ? Would 
it be wrong in me calmly to sit down, with some unprejudiced friends 
and lovers of both parties, and to fix with them the marks and symptoms 
of enthusiasm ; and then insist, at first in love, and afterwards, if ne- 
cessary, with all the weight of my authority, upon those who have them 
or p lead for them, either to stand to the sober rule of Christianity, or 
openly to depart from us ? 

" Fear not, dear Sir, the Lord will take care of the ark. Have faith 
in the Word, and leave the rest to Providence. ' The Lord will provide ' 
is a comfortable motto for a believer." 3 

Thus by proposing to act as mediator between the Wesleys 
and their "distracted followers in London did Fletcher 



1 Letters, 1791, p. 121. 

2 One of Wesley's Itinerant Preachers. 

3 Letters, 1791, p. 126. 



86 



Wesley s Designated Successor. 



[1762. 



end the eventful year of 1762. In the middle of the 
year he told Charles Wesley that he had "attempted to 
form a Society," and hoped to succeed. He drew up rules 
for this Society. 1 First of all, he described " the nature of 
a Religious Society," and quoted Malachi iii. 16, Psalm lxvi. 
16; Luke viii. 1-3; Acts i. 15, ii. 42-47; Heb - I2 > 
13, x. 25 ; Col. iii. 16; 1 Cor. xiv. 29-31 ; I Thess. v. 
1 1- 1 4 ; James v. 16; and Jude i. 18-21. "Encouraged 
by these texts," said he, " a few of us design to unite in a 
Religious Society to support and animate each other in the 
ways of godliness." He proceeds : — 

" In order to be admitted into the Society, one only condition is pre- 
viously required, namely, a sincere desire to flee from the wrath to come, 
and to seek salvation from the servitude of sin according to the Gospel, 
and the Thirty-nine Articles of the Church of England, especially the 
ninth, tenth, eleventh, twelfth, and thirteenth, which are earnestly 
recommended to the perusal of every person who would be a member. 

"It is, however, expected that the sincerity of such a desire be 
evinced by putting on the form of godliness, which we apprehend to 
consist in three things: 1. Doing no harm, Isa. i. 16; Rom. xii. 9. 
2. Doing good, Isa. i. 17; Rom. xii. 9. 3. Using the means of grace, 
Luke i. 16, Isa. lv. 6." 



1 He also drew up the following rules of daily self-examination for 
himself: — 

" 1. Did I awake spiritual, and was I watchful in keeping my mind 
from wandering this morning when I was rising ? 

"2. Have I this day got nearer to God in times of prayer, or have I 
given way to a lazy, idle spirit ? 

"3. Has my faith been weakened by unwatchfulness, or quickened 
by diligence this day ? 

" 4. Have I this day walked by faith and eyed God in all things ? 

"5. Have I denied myself in all unkind words and thoughts ; have I 
delighted in seeing others preferred before me ? 

" 6. Have I made the most of my precious time, as far as I had light, 
strength, and opportunity ? 

"7. Have I kept the issues of my heart in the means of grace, so as 
to profit by them ? 

"8. What have I done this day for the souls and bodies of God's dear 
saints ? 

"9. Have I laid out anything to please myself when I might t have 
saved the money for the cause of God ? 

"10. Have I governed well my tongue this day, remembering that 
' in a multitude of words there wanteth not sin ' ? 

" 11. In how many instances have I denied myself this day ? 

"12. Do my life and conversation adorn the Gospel of Jesus Christ ? " 2 

2 " Thirteen Original Letters, by the Rev. John Fletcher. Bath : 1791," 
p. 38. 



Age 33.] Rules of Fletcher' *s Methodist Societies. 87 



Under the first of these rules Fletcher mentions " taking 
the Lord's name in vain, either by profane cursing, swearing, 
or trivial exclamations ; " sabbath-breaking ; uncleanness ; 
drunkenness, or tippling, or going into a public house, or 
staying without necessity ; fighting ; quarrelling ; brawling ; 
railing, uncharitable conversation ; filthy talking ; jesting ; 
evil speaking ; attendance at balls, plays, races, cock-fightings 
and bull-baitings ; gaming; song-singing; reading unprofitable 
books; softness; needless indulgence; putting on gaudy and 
costly apparel ; smuggling; taking advantage of a neighbour, 
etc. 

Under the second, he includes doing good to the bodies of 
men ; doing good to the souls of men ; discountenancing pro- 
faneness and immorality ; diligence in business ; taking up the 
cross daily, etc. 

Under the third, he names, the public worship of God in 
the church; the ministry of the Word either read or expounded; 
the Lord's Supper ; family prayer ; private prayer ; Scripture 
reading ; fasting ; and singing hymns and psalms. 

It is needless to tell Methodist readers that Fletcher's 
rules are substantially the same as the rules which Wesley 
drew up and published for the Methodists in 1743, and 
which, excepting two or three trivial alterations, introduced 
in 1744, are the same now as they were then. Fletcher, 
however, attached an " Appendix " to his rules, to the 
following effect : — 

1. That any one practising the Rules "is to give in his or her name 
to the Director of the Society and the major part of the members ; and 
they shall be joyfully admitted, be they high or low, old or young, 
learned or unlearned." 

2. If any member fell into sin, he must be expelled. 

3. If the expelled member wished to be re-admitted, he must acknow- 
ledge his error, and if, after a trial of three months, he appeared to be 
reformed, his re-admission should take place. 

4. The members were to meet together one evening every week 
between seven and eight o'clock. 

5. They were to watch over each other in love. 

6. They were not to be angry with those who spoke against the 
Society. 

The probability is that Fletcher did not print his Rules, 
as Wesley had done. Indeed, there was no need for this, 



88 



Wesley s Designated Successor. [1763- 



as his Societies were few in number, and existed within a 
comparatively small area. It was an easy thing for Fletcher 
to read the rules to each Society as occasion required, and, 
perhaps, they were inscribed in the registers of attendance. 
Three years after Fletcher's death, the Rev. Melville Home, 
his successor at Madeley, printed and published them, and 
stated, in a Preface, that Fletcher drew them up soon after 
his settlement at Madeley, and revised and corrected them 
about the year iJJJ. 

In another production, entitled " Heads of Examination 
for Adult Christians," Fletcher set up a higher standard than 
his "Rules" contained. The following is an abridgment 
of the questions he wished his people to propose to 
themselves : — 

" Do I feel any pride ? Am I dead to all desire of praise ? If any 
despise me, do I like them the worse for it ? Or if they love and 
approve me, do I love them more on that account ? Is Christ the life 
of all my affections and designs, as my soul is the life of my body ? 
Have I always the presence of God ? Does no cloud come between 
God and the eye of my faith ? Am I saved from the fear of man ? Do 
I speak plainly to all, neither fearing their frowns, nor seeking their 
favours ? Am I always ready to confess Christ, to suffer with His 
people, and to die for His sake ? Do I deny myself at all times, and 
take up my cross ? Am I willing to give up my ease and convenience 
to oblige others, or do I expect them to conform to my hours, ways, and 
customs ? Are my bodily senses and outward things all sanctified to 
me ? Am I poor in spirit ? Have I no false shame in approaching 
God ? Do I not lean to my own understanding ? Do I esteem every 
one better than myself ? Do I never take that glory to myself which 
belongs to Christ ? Does meekness bear rule over all my tempers, 
affections, and desires ? Do I possess resignation, seeing God does, 
and will do, all for my good ? Am I temperate, using the world, and 
not abusing it ? Am I courteous, not severe ; suiting myself to all 
with sweetness ; striving to give no one pain, but to gain and win all 
for their good ? Am I vigilant, redeeming time, and taking every 
opportunity of doing good ? Do I perform the most servile offices, such 
as require labour and humiliation, with cheerfulness ? Do I love God 
with all my heart ? Do I constantly present myself, my time, my 
substance, talents, and all I have, a living sacrifice ? Is every thought 
brought into subjection to Christ ? Do I love my neighbour as myself? 
Do I think no evil, listen to no groundless surmises, nor judge from 
appearances ? How am I in my sleep ? If Satan presents any evil 
imagination, does my will immediately resist or give way to it ? Do I 
bear the infirmities of age or sickness without seeking to repair the 



Age 33.] 



A Troublesome Member. 



89 



decays of nature by strong liquors ? Or do I make Christ my sole 
support, casting the burden of a feeble body into the arms of His 
mercy ? " 1 

This was the life Fletcher himself strove to live ; and this 
was the life he urged his Methodists to live. 

Fletcher's Methodist Society at Madeley was formed as 
early as the year 1762 ; and one of its members soon in- 
volved him in trouble. Hence the following, taken from a 
letter addressed to Charles Wesley : — 

"Madeley, January 5, 1763. 

"As to my parish, we are just where we were. We look for our 
Pentecost, but we do not pray sufficiently to obtain it. We are left in 
tolerable quiet by all but the sergeant, who sent a constable to make 
enquiry concerning the life of His Majesty's subjects, upon information 
that the cry of murder had been heard in my house on Christmas Day. 

" This report originated in the cries of a young woman, who is of our 
Society, and whom Satan has bound for some months. It seems to me 
as if that old murderer proposed to ruin the success of my ministry at 
Madeley, as he did in London, in the French Church, by means of 
Miss A d. 

" The young woman here emaciates her body by fastings ; falls into 
convulsions, sometimes in the church, and sometimes in our private 
assemblies ; and is perpetually tempted to suicide. Her constitution 
is considerably weakened, as well as her understanding. What to do 
in this case I know not ; for those who are tempted in this manner pay 
as little regard to reason as the miserable people in Bedlam. Prayer 
and fasting are our only resources. We propose to represent her case 
to the Lord on Tuesday next, and on all the following Tuesdays. Aid 
the weakness of our prayers with all the power of yours." 2 

This was a greater trial to Fletcher than, at first sight, 
appears. It seems to have led him to entertain the thought 
of resigning his living. More than six months afterwards, 
in another letter to Charles Wesley, he wrote : — 

"Madeley, July 26, 1763. 
"Everything here is pretty quiet now. Many of our offences die 
away ; though, not long ago, I had trials in abundance. One of them 
might have made me quit Madeley ; but the young person I mentioned 
as being sorely tempted of the devil, is happily delivered." 3 



1 Letters, 1791, p. 434. 

2 Ibid, 1791, p. 127. 

3 Ibid, p. 133. 



go Wesley s Designated Successor. 



[1763. 



Fletcher's life at Madeley, during the year 1763, seems to 
have been a quiet one. Maxrleld's quarrel with Wesley still 
continued, and Fletcher took an interest in it. Wesley's 
annoyance was great, and his forbearance with the London 
fanatics exposed him to the censure of his friends. John 
Downes, in a letter to Joseph Cownley, wrote : — 

"I consider the follies and extravagance of the witnesses as the 
devices of Satan, to cast a blemish upon a real work of God. The more 
I converse with the solid ones, the more I long to experience what they 
do. It is a stale worthy of a Christian. As to the follies of the en- 
thusiasts, Mr. Charles hears every week less or more. He threatens, 
but cannot find in his heart to put in execution. The consequence is, 
the talk of all the town, and entertainment for the newspapers." 

On February 1, 1763, Charles Wesley wrote: — 

"Satan has made sad havoc of the flock. Four years ago, I gave 
warning of the flood of enthusiasm which has now overflowed us." 

A week later John Wesley remarked : — 

"The mask is thrown off. George Bell, John Dixon, etc., have 
quitted the Society. I wrote to Thomas Maxfield, but was not favoured 
with an answer. This morning I wrote a second time, and received an 
answer indeed ! The substance is, ' You take too much upon you.' " 1 

These brief extracts are given to indicate the great com- 
motion that at this time existed. The excitement was not 
confined to London. It was shared by Mr. Samuel Hatton 
and Miss Hatton, both of them Fletcher's friends and corre- 
spondents, and who seem to have resided at the ancient town 
of Wenn, about twenty miles from Madeley. 2 In a letter 
to Miss Hatton, Fletcher expressed his views, as follows : — 

"Madeley, March 14, 1763. 
"Mr. Maxfield' s reply to Mr. Wesley seems to me just in some 
points, and in others too severe. Mr. Wesley is, perhaps, too tenacious 
of some expressions, and too prone to credit what he wishes concerning 
some mistaken witnesses of the state of fathers in Christ. Mr. 
Maxfield, perhaps, esteems too little the inestimable privilege of being 
perfected in that love which casts out fear. But, in general, I conceive 
that it would be better for babes, or young men in Christ, to cry for a 



1 Tyerman's "Life and Times of Wesley," vol. ii., p. 462. 

2 Letters, 1791, p. 182. 



Age 33-] Reasons For and Against Matrimony. 91 



growth in grace, than to dispute whether fathers in Christ enjoy such 
privileges." 1 

A few weeks later, in a letter to Mr. Samuel Hatton, 
Fletcher wrote : — 

" Madeley, Aj>ril 22, 1763. 
"I am quite of your opinion about the mischief that some professors 
do in the Church of Christ under the mask of sanctity ; but my Master 
bids me bear with the tares until the harvest, lest, in rooting them up, I 
should promiscuously pull up the wheat also. As to Mr. Wesley's 
system of perfection, it tends rather to promote humility than pride, if 
I may credit his description of it in the lines following : — ■ 

" ' Now let me gain perfection's height, 
Now let me into nothing fall, 
Be less than nothing in Thy sight, 
And feel that Christ is all in all / ' 

" More than this I do not desire, and I hope that, short of this, 
nothing will satisfy either my dear friend or me." 2 

The following letter, to Charles Wesley, refers to the same 
disturbance ; but it also mentions another matter of great 
interest. Six years ago, Fletcher had become acquainted 
with Miss Bosanquet. During the present year, he had com- 
menced a correspondence, in the highest degree religious, with 
Miss Hatton. He was a lone man, living among colliers. 
He had lately been with Charles Wesley. Charles was an 
eminently social man, and had suggested to Fletcher that he 
would do well to marry. Fletcher replied as follows : — 

"Madeley, September 9, 1763. 
"My Dear Sir, — I see that we ought to learn continually to cast 
our burdens upon the Lord, who alone can bear them without fatigue 
and pain. If Maxfield returns, the Lord may correct his errors, and 
give him so to insist on the fruits of faith as to prevent antinomianism. 
I believe him sincere ; and, though obstinate and suspicious, I am per- 
suaded he has a true desire to know the will and live the life of God. 
I reply in the same words you quoted to me in one of your letters, — 
*■ Don't be afraid of a wreck, for Jesus is in the ship.' After the most 
violent storm, the Lord will, perhaps, all at once, bring our ship into the 
desired haven. 

" You ask me a very singular question with respect to women ; I shall, 
however, answer it with a smile, as I suppose you asked it. You might 
have remarked that, for some days before I set off for Madeley, I con- 



Letters, 1791, p. 130. 



Ibid, p. 132. 



92 



Wesley's Designated Successor. 



[1763. 



sidered matrimony with a different eye to what I had done ; and the 
person who then presented herself to my imagination was Miss Bosanquet. 
Her image pursued me for some hours the last day, and that so warmly, 
that I should, perhaps, have lost my peace if a suspicion of the truth of 
Juvenal's proverb, ' Veniunt a dote sagittae? had not made me blush, 
fight, and fly to Jesus, who delivered me at the same moment from her 
image and the idea of marriage. Since that time, I have been more 
than ever on my guard against admitting the idea of matrimony, some- 
times by the consideration of the love of Jesus, which ought to be my 
whole felicity ; and, at others, by the following reflections. 

" It is true that the Scripture says that a good wife is the gift of the 
Lord ; and it is also true that there may be one in a thousand ; but who 
would put in a lottery where are nine hundred and ninety-nine blanks 
to one prize ? And, suppose I could find this Phoenix, this woman of a 
thousand, what should I gain by it ? A distressing refusal. How could 
she choose such a man as I ? If, notwithstanding all my self-love, I 
am compelled cordially to despise myself, could I be so wanting in 
generosity as to expect another to do that for me, which I cannot do 
for myself— to engage to love, to esteem, and to honour me ? 

" I will throw on my paper some reflections which the last paragraphs 
of your letter gave rise to, and I beg you will weigh them with me in 
the balances of the sanctuary. 



" Reasons for and 
" 1. A tender friendship is, after 
the love of Christ, the greatest 
felicity of life ; and a happy mar- 
riage is nothing but such a friend- 
ship between two persons of differ- 
ent sexes. 



" 2. A wife might deliver me 
from the difficulties of housekeep- 
ing, etc. 

"3. Some objections and scan- 
dals may be avoided by marriage. 

"4. A pious and zealous wife 
might be as useful as myself ; 
nay, she might be much more so 
among my female parishioners, 
who greatly want an inspectress. 



against matrimony. 

"1. Death will shortly end all par- 
ticular friendships. The happier 
the state of marriage, the more 
afflicting is the widowhood ; be- 
sides, we may try a friend and 
reject him after trial ; but we can- 
not know a wife till it is too late 
to part with her. 

"2. Marriage brings after it a 
hundred cares and expenses ; chil- 
dren, a family, etc. 

"3. If matrimony is not happy, 
it is the most fertile source of 
scandal. 

"4. I have a thousand to one 
to fear that a wife, instead of being 
a help, may be indolent, and con- 
sequently useless ; orhumoursome, 
haughty, capricious, and conse- 
quently a heavy curse. 

"Farewell! Yours, 

"J. Fletcher." 1 



1 Letters, 1791, p. 144. 



Age 34. j The Furious Butcher Humbled. 93 



This is a curious letter. Eighteen years after the time 
when it was written, Fletcher married Miss Bosanquet. Pro- 
bably the "reasons for matrimony" had been, in substance, 
suggested by Charles Wesley. Fletcher's " reasons against 
matrimony" were undoubtedly sincere, but they were unin- 
tentionally selfish, and were unworthy of him. Experience 
taught him wisdom. 

Before proceeding further, a remarkable occurrence must 
be noted. The church at Madeley is dedicated to St. Michael, 
whose feast-day is September 29. On that day, in 1763, 
Fletcher preached from Dan. iii. 14, and concluded his dis- 
course in words like these : — 

" From the dedication of our church, from days set apart to be kept 
holy, Satan takes occasion to enforce the worship of his threefold image, 
profit, honour, pleasure. Now remember the duty of God's people, and 
quit yourselves like men. Some petty Nebuchadnezzars have sent to 
gather together, not princes, but drunken men ; and have set up, not a 
golden image, no, nor a golden calf, but a living bull. 1 O ye that fear 
God, be not afraid of their terror; be not allured by their music; confess 
the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. ' No other God can 
deliver after this sort,' said the heathen ; and give me leave to add, 
' No other God can punish after this sort.' The burning furnace of His 
indignation is heated ; and eternity is the duration of its torments." 2 

The way in which Fletcher was led to preach this sermon 
on " the Wake-Sunday" was told by himself, and the 
story, after his death, was published in a small tract, entitled, 
" The Furious Butcher Humbled : a true and remarkable 
story, as related by the late Rev. Mr. Fletcher, Vicar of 
Madeley." The substance of it was also inserted in the 
Evangelical Magazine for the year 1798. From that account, 
the following is taken. 

■ ' One Sunday," said Mr. Fletcher, "when I had done reading prayers 
at Madeley, I went up into the pulpit, intending to preach a sermon, 
which I had prepared for that purpose ; but my mind was so confused, 
that I could not recollect either my text or any part of my sermon. I 
was afraid I should be obliged to come down without saying anything. 
But, having recollected myself a little, I thought I would say something 
on the First Lesson, which was the third chapter of the book of Daniel, 
containing the account of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego being 



1 The reference obviously is to a bull-baiting. 

2 Fletcher's Works, vol. viii., p. 76. 



94 



Wesley' s Designated Successor, [1763. 



cast into the fiery furnace. I found, in doing this, such extraordinary 
assistance from God, and such a peculiar enlargement of heart, that I 
supposed there must be some peculiar cause of it. I therefore desired, 
if any of the congregation found anything particular, they would acquaint 
me with it in the ensuing week. 

" In consequence of this, the Wednesday after, a woman came and 
gave me the following account : — 

" ' I have been for some time much concerned about my soul. I have 
attended the church at all opportunities, and have spent much time in 
private prayer. At this, my husband (who is a butcher) has been exceed- 
ingly enraged, and has threatened me severely as to what he would do to 
me if I did not leave off going to John Fletcher's church ; yea, if I dared 
to go again to any religious meetings whatever. When I told him I 
could not in conscience refrain from going, at least, to the parish church, 
he became outrageous, and swore dreadfully, and said, if I went again, 
he would cut my throat as soon as I came back. This made me cry to 
God that He would support me ; and, though I did not feel any great 
degree of comfort, yet, having a sure confidence in God, I determined 
to do my duty, and leave the event to Him. Last Sunday, after many 
struggles with the devil and my own heart, I came downstairs ready 
for church. My husband said he should not cut my throat, as he had 
intended, but he would heat the oven, and throw me into it, the moment 
I came home. Notwithstanding this threat, which he enforced with 
many bitter oaths, I went to church, praying all the way that God would 
strengthen me to suffer whatever might befall me. While you were 
speaking of the three children whom Nebuchadnezzar cast into the 
burning fiery furnace, I found all you said belonged to me. God applied 
every word to my heart ; and, when the sermon was ended, I thought, 
if I had a thousand lives, I could lay them all down for Him. I felt so 
filled with His love that I hastened home, fully determined to give 
myself to whatsoever God pleased ; nothing doubting that He either 
would take me to heaven, if He suffered me to be burnt to death ; or 
that He would in some way deliver me, as He did His three servants 
that trusted in Him. When I got to my own door, I saw flames issuing 
from the oven, and I expected to be thrown into it immediately. I felt 
my heart rejoice, that, if it were so, the will of the Lord would be done. 
I opened the door, and, to my utter astonishment, saw my husband upon 
his knees, praying for the forgiveness of his sins. He caught me in his 
arms ; earnestly begged my pardon ; and has continued diligently seek- 
ing God ever since.' " 

Such was the poor woman's story. After listening to it, 
Fletcher cried, " Now I know why my sermon was taken 
from me, namely, that God might thus magnify His mercy." 

Nothing need be added, except that to attribute these 
strange occurrences to anything less than the direct inter- 
ference of Him who has supreme authority over all human 



Age 34.] 



Three Letters to Miss Hatton. 



95 



minds and hearts would be infidelity of the most impious 
kind. 

Nothing is known of Fletcher's life during the year 1764. 
It is a singular fact, that only three of his letters, belonging 
to this period, have been published, and these were all 
addressed to his friend, at Wem, Miss Hatton. They are 
entirely devoid of incident ; but are full of piety. The 
following are extracts : — 

"Madeley, March 5, 1764. Your dulness in private prayer arises 
from the want of familiar friendship with Jesus. To obviate it, go to 
your closet, as if you were going to meet your dearest friend ; cast your- 
self at His feet ; bemoan your coldness ; extol His love to you ; and 
let your heart break with a desire to love Him. Get recollection, — a 
dwelling within ourselves, — a being abstracted from the creature, and 
turned towards God. For want of such a frame, our times of prayer are 
frequently dry and useless ; imagination prevails, and the heart wanders ; 
whereas we pass easily from recollection to delightful prayer." 1 

" Madeley, September 3, 1764. With respect to the hindrances your 
worldly business lays in your way, the following means, in due subordi- 
nation to faith in Jesus, may be of service to you : — 

" 1. Get up early and save time, before you go to business, to put on 
the whole armour of God, by close meditation and earnest prayer. 

"2. Consider the temptation that most easily besets you, whether it 
be hurry, or vanity, or lightness, or want of recollection to do what you 
do as unto God. 

"3. When your mind has been drawn aside, do not fret, or let your- 
self go down the stream of nature, as if it were vain to attempt to swim 
against it ; but confess your fault, and calmly resume your former endea- 
vour, but with more humility and watchfulness. 

"4. Steal from business now and then, though for twp or three minutes 
only, and, in the corner where you can be least observed, pour out your 
soul in confession ; or utter a short ejaculation for power to watch, and 
to believe that Jesus can keep you watching." 2 

"Madeley, December, 1764. I am sensible how I want advice in a 
thousand particulars, and how incapable I am to direct anyone ; but 
the following observations came to my mind on the reading of your 
letter, and I venture to send them. 

"You cannot expect to attain to such a carriage as will please all 
you converse with. The Son of God, the original of all human per- 
fection, was blamed, sometimes for His silence, and sometimes for His 
speaking ; and shall the handmaid be above her Master ? 

"There is no sin in wearing such things as you have by you, if they 
are necessary for your station, and characterize your rank. 



1 Letters, 1791, p. 147. 

2 Ibid, 1791, p. 151. 



g6 Wesley s Designated Successor. [1764. 



" There is no sin in looking cheerful. ' Rejoice evermore : ' and, if it 
is our duty always to be filled with joy , it is our duty to aftfiear what 
we are in reality. I hope, however, your friends know how to distin- 
guish between cheerfulness and levity. 

" Beware of stiff singularity in things barely indifferent : it is self in 
disguise ; and it is so much the more dangerous when it comes recom- 
mended by a serious, self-denying, religious appearance. 

"1 hope the short-comings of some about you will not prevent you 
eyeing the prize of a glorious conformity to our blessed Head. It is to 
be feared that not a few of those who profess to have attained it, have 
mistaken the way. They are still something ; whereas I apprehend 
that an important step towards that conformity is to become nothing ; 
or rather, with St. Paul, — to become in our own eyes the chief of 
sinners, and the least of saints "." 1 

These fragmentary extracts are of some importance, be- 
cause they indicate the matters respecting which Fletcher 
was consulted, and also exhibit his own habitual frame of 
mind. 

Before leaving the year 1764, one incident must be men- 
tioned, far too interesting to be omitted. So far as there 
is evidence to show, there had been no interview, and, indeed, 
no correspondence, between Fletcher and Wesley since the 
year 1760, when Fletcher, contrary to the advice of Wesley, 
accepted the living of Madeley. There is not the slightest 
proof of any estrangement of affection having taken place ; 
but Fletcher had been too much occupied to visit Wesley in 
London ; and Wesley, considering the opposition Fletcher 
had to encounter, had, hitherto, not deemed it expedient to 
visit Fletcher at Madeley. As to epistolary correspondence, 
Charles Wesley was Fletcher's chosen adviser ; and that, for 
the present, was quite enough. The Madeley persecutions 
had now subsided ; and, hence, in the month of July, 1764, 
the A rch- Methodist ventured to invade the parish of the 
Madeley vicar. He wrote : — 

" 1764, Saturday, July 21. I rode to Bilbrook, near Wolverhampton, 
and preached at between two and three. Thence we went on taMadeley, 
an exceedingly pleasant village, encompassed with trees and hills. It 
was a great comfort to me to converse once more with a Methodist of 
the old tyfie, denying himself, taking up his cross, and resolved to be 
' altogether a Christian.' 



1 Letters, 1791, p. 153. 



Age 3 6.<e 



Simplicity of Living. 



97 



''Sunday. July 22. At ten, Mr. Fletcher read prayers, and I 
preached on those words in the Gospel. 'I am the Good Shepherd: 
the Good Shepherd layeth down His life for the sheep.' The church 
would nothing near contain the congregation ; but a window near the 
pulpit being taken down, those who could no: come in stood in the 
churchyard, and I believe all could hear. The congregation, they said, 
used to be much smaller in the afternoon than in the morning ; but 
I could not discern the least difference, either in number or seriousness. 
I found employment enough for the intermediate hours in praying with 
various companies who hung about the house, insatiably hungering and 
thirsting after the good word. Mr. Grimshaw, at his first coming to 
Haworth, had not such a prospect as this. There are many adversaries 
indeed ; but yet they cannot shut the open and effectual door. 

"Monday. July 23. The church was pretty well filled even at five, 
and many stood in the churchyard. In the evening, I preached at 
Shrewsbury, to a large congregation, among whom were several men 
of fortune. I trust, though hitherto we seem to have been ploughing on 
the sand, there will at last be some fruit." 1 

Wesley's first visit to Madeley was, to himself, eminently 
satisfactory ; and his report of it shows that, notwithstanding 
the " many adversaries/' Fletcher's labours had been crowned 
with great success. 

Trulv misrht Weslev designate Fletcher a Methodist of 
the old type, denying himself, and taking up his cross/' The 
following letter, addressed " to Mr. Henry Perronet, at Mr. 
Wright's, at the Boot, in Old Street, St. Luke's Parish, 
London," will partly illustrate Wesley's meaning. 

" Madeley, Naoember 6, 1765. 

" Sir, — I have received both your letter and Mr. Charles Wesley's, 
and shall be exceeding glad of an opportunity to oblige or serve you in 
anything in my power. 

1 ' As you seem to me a stranger to the situation of the country. I 
would have you come down first, and choose for yourself a spot that 
may suit 3 r our taste. I live here in a little market-town, three or four 



miles from the foot of the Wrekin, at the south-east of that hill ; so that 
you may easily take a walk or ride with me to- some of the spots or 
villages where you may prefer to fix your abode, if this does not please 
you. I live alone in my house, having neither wife, child, nor servant. 
I can, therefore, without inconveniency, spare you a room in the mean- 
time. If you choose to provide your food, you shall have conveniences 
for it ; if you choose to table with a neighbour, as I do, you may. 



"You seem to be cut out for contemplation and retirement, Sir; 



1 Wesley's Journal. 



7 



9 8 



Wesley s Designated Successor. 



[1765. 



I hope you have made choice of Jesus for the chief subject of your medi- 
tations. May you find much of His presence everywhere ! 

" If you choose to venture into Shropshire, you may take the Shrews- 
bury coach at the Swan, in Lad Lane, somewhere in the city, and in 
two days and a half you will be at Shifmal, eighteen miles short of 
Shrewsbury, and three from Madeley. If you send me word when you 
are to set out, I will send my mare to meet you at the Red Lion, in 
Shifmal, the day that the coach passes through the town. 

" That the Lord may direct and prosper you in all things is the wish 
of, Sir, your affectionate servant in Christ, 

"J. Fletcher." 1 

As a farther illustration of Fletcher's simplicity of living, 
and of his habitual piety, an incident may be introduced, 
belonging to about this period, and published in a sermon 
preached on the occasion of the death of Fletcher's widow, 
in 1 8 16, by the Rev. John Hodson. Mr. Hodson says : — 

"A few days ago, I was in company with a pious female, who, for 
many years, was intimately acquainted with Mr. Fletcher. She said 
Mr. Fletcher sometimes visited a boarding-school at Madeley. One 
morning he came in just as she and the other girls had sat down to 
breakfast. He said but little while the meal lasted, but when it was 
finished he spoke to each girl separately, and concluded by saying to 
the whole, ' I have waited some time on you this morning, that I might 
see you eat your breakfast ; and I hope you will visit me to-morrow 
morning, and see how I eat mine.' He told them his breakfast hour 
was seven o'clock, and obtained a promise that they would visit him. 
Next morning, they went at the time appointed, and seated themselves in 
the kitchen. Mr. Fletcher came in, quite rejoiced to see them. On the 
table stood a small basin of milk and sops of bread. Mr. Fletcher took 
the basin across the kitchen, and sat down on an old bench. He then 
took out his watch, laid it before him, and said, ' My dear girls, yester- 
day morning I waited on you a full hour, while you were at breakfast. 
I shall take as much time this morning in eating my breakfast as I 
usually do, if not rather more. Look at my watch ! ' and he immediately 
began to eat, and continued in conversation with them. When he had 
finished, he asked them how long he had been at breakfast. They 
said, 'Just a minute and a half, Sir.' 'Now, my dear girls,' said he, 
' we have fifty-eight minutes of the hour left ; ' and he then began to 
sing,— 

" ' Our life is a dream ! 
Our time as a stream 
Glides swiftly away, 

And the fugitive moment refuses to stay.' 



1 Wesley an Methodist Magazme, 1825, p. 744. 



Age 36.] 



Alexander Mather. 



99 



After this, he gave them a lecture on the value of time, and the worth 
of the soul. They then all knelt down in prayer, after which he dis- 
missed them with impressions on the mind the narrator never ceased to 
remember." 

At Wesley's yearly Conference of 1765, Alexander Mather 
was appointed to " Salop " circuit, with William Minethorpe 
as his colleague. Mr. Mather was now in the thirty-third 
year of his age. During the last eight years, he had been 
an itinerant preacher, and had passed through strange and 
painful vicissitudes. In 1760 his circuit had been "Stafford- 
shire ; " in which circuit he had " built a preaching-house at 
Darlaston, and hired a large building at Birmingham." He 
had extended his labours as far as Shrewsbury, Coventry, 
Stroud, and Painswick ; and, by Wesley's directions, . had 
visited the " Societies " in Wales. At Birmingham, Mather 
and the poor Methodists had been repeatedly in danger of 
being murdered by persecuting crowds ; and at Wolver- 
hampton the mob had pulled down the newly-built meeting- 
house ; and had threatened to do the same at Dudley, 
Darlaston, and Wednesbury. He had also preached at several 
places in Shropshire, and now, in 1765, the county was 
made a Methodist circuit, in which he was appointed to act 
as Wesley's " Assistant." Fletcher had already formed two 
or three Societies, which, without being so designated, were, 
ipso facto, Methodist Societies. He warmly welcomed Mather, 
and was more than willing to be a Methodist co-worker. 
Hence the following letter addressed to the brave itinerant : — 

"My Dear Brother, — I thank you for your last favour. If I 
answered not your former letter it was because I was in expectation of 
seeing you — not from the least disregard. I am glad you enjoy peace at 
Wellington ; and I hope you will do so at the Trench when you go there. 
My reasons for stopping there were not to seize upon the spot first, but 
to fulfil a promise I made to the people, of visiting them. I desire you 
will call there as often as you have opportunity. An occasional exhor- 
tation from you or your companion, 1 at the Bank, 2 Dale, 3 etc., will be 
esteemed a favour ; and I hope that my going, as Providence directs, 
to any of your places (leaving to you the management of the Societies), 



1 William Minethorpe, Mather's colleague. 

2 A place about five miles from Madeley, where Fletcher had gathered 
a small Society. 

3 Coalbrook Dale. 



ICO 



Wesley s Designated Successor. 



[1765. 



will be deemed no encroachment. In short, we need not make two 
parties; I know but one heaven below, and that is Jesus' s love. Let 
us both go and abide in it ; and when we have gathered as many as we 
can to go with us, too many will still stay behind. 

" I find there are in the ministry, as in the common experience of 
Christians, times which may be compared to winter. No great stir is 
made in the world of grace beside that of storms and offences, and the 
growth of the trees of the Lord are not showy; but when the tender buds 
of brotherly and redeeming love begin to fill, spring is at hand. The 
Lord give us harvest after seed time ! Let us wait for fruit, as the 
husbandman ; and remember, that he who believes does not make haste. 
The love of Christ be with us all. Pray for 

" J. Fletcher." 1 

Thus began Methodism in the county of Salop, which 
circuit, in 1766, contained 587 members. It is only right 
to say, however, that, in the Minutes of Conference, the name 
of the circuit was, in that year, changed to " Stafford- 
shire," — a name which it retained till 1782, though it 
embraced a number of towns and villages in the county 
where the Madeley vicar lived and laboured. 

In 1765 Fletcher made two evangelistic visits. The first 
of these was to Breedon, in Leicestershire. Walter Sellon had 
been one of the first masters of Wesley's Kingswood school, 
had acted as one of Wesley's preachers, and, by the influence 
of the Countess of Huntingdon, had received episcopal ordi- 
nation. At this period, he held two curacies, one at Smisby 
and the other at Breedon-on-the-Hill. His churches were 
generally crowded, and his ministry was attended with un- 
common power. He lived in the house of Mr. Hall, of Tonge, 
the leader of Methodist Society classes at Breedon, Worthing- 
ton, and Diseworth, and who, after living all his life in the 
nouse where he was born, peacefully fell asleep in Jesus in 
the year 1 8 1 3, at the age of eighty-one. 2 Of course Fletcher's 
reputation was well known by Sellon ; and now, in 1 7^5 * f° r 
a brief season, they exchanged pulpits. Immense crowds 
assembled ; and exceedingly picturesque must have been the 
sight of long processions of pious people climbing the lofty 
hill on the top of which Breedon church was built, and 
singing as they went their sweet songs of Zion. The church 



1 Letters, i79i,p. 163. 

2 Methodist Magazine, 181 8, pp. 49-57. 



Age 36.] Fletcher at Breedon. 



101 



was crammed when Fletcher preached ; numbers stood out- 
side ; and as many as could clambered to the windows to 
look at the seraphic minister to whom they wished to listen. 1 
Mr. Benson, in his " Life of Fletcher," relates an incident 
which must not be omitted here. Human nature is the same 
all the world over, and throughout all generations. 

We are told the clerk of Breedon church was offended 
because the crowds attending it increased his labour in 
cleaning it. Turning his worldly-wisdom to practical account, 
he began to charge persons, from other parishes, a penny each 
for admission, and stood at the church door to collect the 
money. Whilst he was doing this, Fletcher was prayerfully 
ascending the steep hill, and reverentially contemplating the 
solemn service upon which he was about to enter. One of 
the congregation went to meet him, and told him of the 
clerk's worldliness. Fletcher was shocked at the behaviour 
of his ecclesiastical subordinate, and hastening up the steep 
ascent, exclaimed, " I'll stop his proceeding." The clerk, 
however, was more nimble than the priest. Before Fletcher 
could reach the money-gate the clerk was in his desk, ready 
to read responses and perform all the other duties pertaining 
to his office. Perhaps he thought he had cleverly escaped 
detection and reproof, but the sordid creature was mistaken. 
Fletcher went through the service, and then remarked, " For 
sixteen years I have not been so moved as I have been to-day. 
I am told that the clerk beneath me has demanded, and has 
actually received, money from strangers before he would 
suffer them to enter the church. I desire all who have paid 
the money to come to me, and I will return what they have 
paid ; and as to this iniquitous clerk, his money perish with 
him ! " 

This interesting story is not without its use, for it exhibits 
Fletcher's almost stern fidelity, and also the spirit of parish 
clerks more than a hundred years ago. It would be unfair, 
however, to ostracize the Breedon official as one whose 
worldly wickedness is without a parallel ; for there is little 
room to doubt that even at the present day largess is often 
levied upon congregations, if not by responding clerks, by 



1 Wesleyan Methodist Magazine, 1856, pp. 36-38. 



102 



Wesley s Designated Successor. 



[1765. 



doorkeepers and other officials belonging to the ecclesiastical 
edifices of an age which thinks itself greatly in advance of its 
predecessors. 

Fletcher made another and more important Gospel tour 
during the year 1765. For the first time, he visited Bath 
and Bristol. In the former city, Lady Huntingdon had 
erected a chapel, and had summoned six clergymen of the 
Church of England to assist at the opening ; namely, White- 
field, Romaine, Venn, Madan, Shirley, and Townsend. This 
took place on October 6, 1765. 1 Fletcher came after them, 
and preached to the aristocratic congregations in her lady- 
ship's meeting-house with extraordinary zeal and earnestness. 
The Countess wrote : — 

" Deep and awful are the impressions made on every hand. Dear 
Mr. Fletcher's preaching is truly apostolic. The Divine blessing accom- 
panies his word in a very remarkable manner. He is ever at his work, 
is amazingly followed, and is singularly owned of God." 2 

During his stay at Bath, Fletcher wrote his first pastoral 
letter, which was addressed, " To those who love the Lord 
Jesus Christ in or about Madeley. Peace be multiplied to 
you from God the Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ, 
through the operations of the Holy Ghost. Amen." The 
letter was dated "Bath, October 30, 1765," and the follow- 
ing is the substance of it : — 

" By the help of Divine Providence, and the assistance of your prayers, 
I came safe hither last Saturday se'nnight. I was and am still a good 
deal weighed down under the sense of my insufficiency to preach the 
unspeakable riches of Christ to poor dying souls. This place is the seat 
of Satan's gaudy throne ; but the Lord hath nevertheless a few names 
here that are not ashamed of Him, both among the poor and among the 
rich. There are not many of the latter, but blessed be God for any one ! 
It is a great miracle if one camel passes through the eye of a needle; or, 
in other words, if one rich person enters the kingdom of God. I thank 
God that none of you are rich in the things of this world. You are freed 
from a dreadful snare, even from Dives' portion in this world. " May 
you know the happiness of your state ! It is a mercy to be driven to the 
throne of grace even by bodily want, and to live in dependence on Divine 
mercy even for a morsel of bread. 



1 See " Life of Whitefield," vol. ii., p. 489. 

2 " Life and Times of the Countess of Huntingdon," vol. i., p. 469. 



Age 36] Fletcher's First Pastoral Letter. 



103 



" I have been sowing the seed, that the Lord hath given, both in Bath 
and Bristol ; and, though I have not been able to discharge my office as 
I would, the Lord has in some measure stood by me, and overruled my 
foolishness and helplessness. I am much supported by the thought 
that 'you pray for me.' With regard to the state of my soul, I find, 
blessed be God ! that as my day is, so is my strength to travel on, with- 
out minding much either good or bad report. 

" My absence from you answers two good ends in regard of me. I 
feel more my insufficiency, and the need of being daily ordained of Christ 
to preach His Gospel ; and I shall value the more the worth of my privi- 
lege with you if I return safely to you. I had yesterday a most advan- 
tageous offer made me of going free of cost to my own country, to see 
my mother, brothers, and sisters in the flesh, whom I have not seen for 
near eighteen years ; but I find my relations in the spirit are nearer and 
dearer to me than my relations in the flesh. I have therefore refused 
the kind offer, that I might return to you, and be comforted by the mutual 
faith of 3*ou and me. 

" I hope, my dear brethren, that you improve much under the ministry 
of that faithful servant of God, Mr. Brown, 1 whom Providence blesses 
you with. Make haste to gather the honey of knowledge and grace as 
it drops from his lips ; and may I find the hive of your heart so full of it 
at my return, that I may share with you in the heavenly store ! 

" In order to this, entreat the Lord to stir up your hunger and thirst 
after the flesh and blood of Jesus, and to increase your desire for the 
sincere milk of the Word. When people are hungry they will find time 
- to go to their meals ; and a good appetite does not think a meal a day 
too much. Be not satisfied with knowing the way to heaven, but walk 
in it constantly and joyfully. Be thoroughly in earnest. You may impose 
upon your brethren by a formal attendance on the means of grace, but 
you cannot deceive the Searcher of hearts. Let Him then see your heart 
struggling towards Him ; and if you fall through heaviness, sloth, or 
unbelief, do not make a bad matter worse by continuing hopeless in the 
ditch of sin and guilt. Up and away to the blood of Jesus ! It will not 
only wash away the guilt of past sins, but strengthen you to trample all 
iniquity under foot in the time to come. Never forget that the soul of 
the diligent shall be made fat ; and that the Lord will spue the lukewarm 
out of His mouth. Get, therefore, that love which makes you diligent 
in business, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord. 

" I beg you will not neglect the assembling of yourselves together, 
and, when you meet in Society, be neither backward nor forward to speak. 
Let every one esteem himself the meanest in the company, and be glad 
to sit at the feet of the lowest. If you are tempted against any one, 
yield not to the temptation ; and pray for much of that love which hopeth 
all things, and puts the best constructions even upon the worst of things. 



1 A clergyman whom James Ireland, Esq., of Brislington, near Bristol, 
had obtained to supply Fletcher's pulpit at Madeley. See a subsequent 
.letter, dated April 27, 1767. 



104 Wesley s Designated Successor. [1765- 



I beg, for Christ's sake, I may find no division and no offence among 
you at my return. 'If there be any consolation in Christ, if any comfort 
of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any bowels of mercy, fulfil ye my 
joy, that ye be like-minded, having the same love, being of one accord, 
of one mind. Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory ; but in 
lowliness of mind let each esteem the others better than himself.' 

" I earnestly beg the continuance of your prayers for me, that the Lord 
may keep me from hurting His cause in these parts, and that when Pro- 
vidence shall bring me back among you (which I hope will be this day 
fortnight), I may be thoroughly furnished for every good word and work. 
That the blessing of God may crown all your hearts and your meetings, 
is the earnest prayer of, my very dear brethren, 

" Your unworthy servant in the Gospel of our common Lord, 

"John Fletcher. 

"P.S. — I had not time to finish this letter yesterday, being called 
upon to preach in a market town in the neighbourhood. The dragon 
showed some of his spite and venom to little purpose. A gentleman 
churchwarden would hinder my getting into the pulpit, and, in order to 
this, cursed and swore, and took another gentleman by the collar in 
the middle of the church. Notwithstanding his rage, I preached. May 
the Lord raise in power what was sown in weakness ! " 1 

From this interesting letter, it appears that Fletcher spent 
four Sundays at Bath and Bristol. No doubt, he was the 
guest of the Countess of Huntingdon ; but, at the same time, 
he formed an acquaintance with the excellent James Ireland, 
Esq., of Brislington, with whom he commenced a correspond- 
ence two or three months afterwards, which was continued 
to the end of life. There can hardly be a doubt that 
Mr. Ireland was the gentleman who offered to take Fletcher 
to Switzerland, free of cost. At this time, Mr. Ireland's 
daughter was out of health, and for many years afterwards 
he was accustomed to go to the south of France for the 
benefit of himself and his family. 

Eighteen years had elapsed since Fletcher had seen his 
mother, his brothers, and his sisters, and of course he w T ished 
to visit them ; but there was his work at Madeley, and 
that was enough to make him forego w T hat, under other 
circumstances, must have been an unspeakable pleasure. 
Some will accuse him of the want of natural affection, and 
will say he owed duties to his distant and long unseen 



1 "Thirteen Original Letters." By the Rev. J. Fletcher. Bath: 
1791, p. 10. 



Age 36.] 



Fletcher and his Relatives. 



io 5 



relatives, as well as to his parishioners. Probably, in answer 
to such a charge, he would have quoted the words of his 
supreme Master : " Who is my mother ? and who are my 
brethren ? Whosoever shall do the will of my Father which 
is in heaven, the same is my brother, and sister, and mother." 

It is evident, from Fletcher's pastoral epistle, that his 
preaching in the west of England was not confined to Bath 
and Bristol ; but, except the disgraceful incident of the 
profane churchwarden swearing and almost fighting to keep 
him out of the pulpit of a church in some neighbouring 
market town, no details of his tour have been preserved. 
The letters and journals of Wesley and Whitefieid abound 
with facts and adventures, full of interest and instruction : 
the letters of Fletcher were of another character. They are 
rich in truth and piety ; but not always in materials for 
biography. His habitual self-abnegation kept in the shade 
thousands of facts which the curiosity of the Christian world 
would like to know. 

The first two years he spent at Madeley were rough and 
stormy. He worked with all his might, but with small 
results. The next three years were comparatively calm and 
prosperous. Opposition gradually died. His labours were 
attended with success. He formed several Societies of con- 
verted people ; and his friend Wesley made the county of 
Salop a Methodist circuit. For nearly five years he had 
confined his evangelistic efforts to his own immediate neigh- 
bourhood ; after this, to a considerable extent, he became 
an itinerant. Let us follow him. 



io6 Wesley s Designated Successor. [1766. 



CHAPTER VI. 
TWO YEARS MORE. 

ij66 and 1767. 

FLETCHER began the year 1766 in mournfulness, and 
yet full of love and loyalty to Christ. In a letter to 
Miss Hatton, he wrote : — 

"Madeley, January 13, 1766. 

" Madam, — This evening I have buried one of the warmest opposers 
of my ministry — a stout, strong young man, aged twenty-four years. 
About three months ago, he came to the churchyard with a corpse, but 
refused to come into the church. When the burial was over, I went to 
him, and mildly expostulated with him. His constant answer was, that 
he had bound himself never to come to church while I was there ; adding, 
that he would take the consequences. Seeing I got nothing, I left him, 
saying, with uncommon warmth, though, as far as I can remember, 
without the least touch of resentment, ' I am clear of your blood ; hence- 
forth it is upon your own head ; you will not come to church upon your 
legs, prepare to come upon your neighbours' shoulders /' He wasted 
from that time, and, to my great surprise, has been buried on the spot 
where we were when the conversation passed between us. When I 
visited him in his sickness, he seemed tame, as a wolf in a trap. O may 
God have turned him into a sheep in his last hours ! 

" This last year has been the worst I have had here, — barren in con- 
victions, fruitful in backslidings. 

"I have filled my page, but not with the name of Jesus. Let your 
heart contain what my letter wants, — Jesus and His precious blood, — 
Jesus aitd His free, glorious salvation. Live to Him ; breathe for 
Him ; buy, sell, eat, drink, read, write for Him. Receive Him as yours 
altogether, and give Him your whole self. Take us, Lord, into Thy 
gracious favour ; stamp us with Thy glorious image, and conduct us to 
Thy eternal kingdom ! " 1 

Fletcher was depressed. His labours at Madeley, during 
the past year, had not been fruitful ; and concerning his suc- 



Letters, 1791, p. 165. 



Age 36 ] Rejoicing on Account of other Men 's Success. 107 



cess even at Bath he was doubtful. Mr. Brown, his temporary 
curate, however, seems to have been useful ; and so also were 
Wesley's itinerant evangelists ; on account of which he thank- 
fully rejoiced. In another letter to Miss Hatton, he wrote: — 

" Madeley, May 27, 1766. 

" The coming of Mr. Wesley's preachers into my parish gives me no 
uneasiness. As I am sensible that everybody does better, and is more 
acceptable than myself, I should be sorry to deprive any one of a bless- 
ing ; and I rejoice that the work of God goes on, by any instrument, 
or in any place. How far it might have been expedient to have post- 
poned preaching regularly in my parish, till the minister of had 

been reconciled to the invasion of his ; and how far this might have 
made my way smoother, I do not pretend to determine : time will show 
it, and in the meanwhile I find it good to have faith in Providence. 

" I fear I have left as great a stink at Bath as Mr. Brown a sweet 
savour here. Everything is good to me that shows me my unprofitable- 
ness ; but I desire to grieve, that the good of my private humiliation is 
so much overbalanced by the loss of many about me." 1 

Thus did Fletcher depreciate himself. The truth is, he 
was in feeble health, and hardly knew it. At this time, also, 
two of his dear friends were dying — Miss Hatton, of Wem, 
and Miss Ireland, the only daughter of James Ireland, Esq., 
of Brislington, Bristol. Miss Hatton had been at Madeley, 
and Miss Ireland was about to migrate to the south of 
France. To these ladies, he wrote as follows : — 

"Madeley, June 21, 1766. 

" My Dear Friend, — I am much concerned to hear, by Mrs. Tower, 
that you are so weak ; but my concern has greatly increased, since I 
was told that the foundation of your illness was laid at Madeley ; and, 
I am afraid, by my imprudence in taking you to the woman with whom 
we received the sacrament. I ask God's pardon and yours for it ; and 
I hope it will be the means of humbling me, and of making me more 
tender of my friends. 

" The advice you give me about my health is seasonable. I hope to 
follow it. I am not conscious of having neglected it ; but I will endea- 
vour that there be not so much as the shadow of a call for repeating it. 

" If the air at Wem does not agree with you, could you not come to 
Madeley ? Though I am no nurse, and though I have been the con- 
trary of one to you, I hope we should wait upon you with more tenderness 
than when you were here last. Mrs. Power would nurse you, and I 
would talk to you of the love of Jesus as well as I could. You know 



1 Letters, 1791, p. 169. 



io8 Wesley's Designated Successor. [1766. 



I perceived your bodily weakness when you were here, and charged you 
with a neglect of your body. If I was right, I hope you will follow the 
advice you give me. 

" Offer yourself to God for life or death, for ease or pain, for strength 
or weakness. Let Him choose or refuse for you ; only do you choose 
Him for your present and eternal portion." 1 

Seven months after this, Miss Hatton peacefully expired. 2 
Miss Ireland lived more than two years longer. To her, he 
wrote the following : — - 

" Madeley, July — , 1766. 
" My very dear Friend, — The poor account your father has brought 
us of your health, and his apprehensions of not seeing you any more, 
before that solemn day when all people, nations, and tongues shall 
stand together at the bar of God, make me venture to send you a few 
lines. 

" First, then, my dear friend, let me beseech you not to flatter your- 
self with the hopes of living long here on earth. These hopes fill us 
with worldly thoughts, and make us backward to prepare for our change. 
I would not, for the world, entertain such thoughts about myself. I 
have now, in my parish, a young man who has been two years under 
the surgeon's hands. Since he was given up, about two months ago, 
he has fled to the Lord, and has found in Him that saving health, which 
a thousand times surpasses that with which the surgeon flattered him ; 
and he now longs to be with Christ, which is far better. 

" Secondly. Consider, my dear, how good the Lord is to call you to 
be transplanted into a better world, before you have taken deeper root 
in this sinful world. If it is hard to nature to die now, how much 
harder would it be if you lived to be the mother of a family, and to 
cleave to earth by the ties of new relations, schemes of gain, or prospects 
of success ! 

"Thirdly. Reflect that, by your illness, the Lord, who forecasts for 
us, intimates that long life would not be for His glory, nor your happi- 
ness. I believe He takes many young people from the evil to come, 
and out of the way of those temptations, or misfortunes, which would 
have made them miserable in time and in eternity. 

"Fourthly. Your earthly father loves you much: witness the hun- 
dreds of miles he has gone for the benefit of your health ; but your 
heavenly Father loves you a thousand times better ; and He is all 
wisdom, as well as all goodness. Allow, then, such a loving, gracious 
Father to chose for you ; and, if He chooses death, acquiesce, and say, 
' Good is the will of the Lord ! His choice must be best ! ' 

" Fifthly. Weigh the sinfulness of sin, both original and actual, and 
firmly believe the wages of sin is death. This will make you patiently 



1 Letters, 1791, p. 170, 



2 Jbid, p. 190, 



Age 36.] Letters to Young Ladies, 109 



accept the punishment ; especially if you consider that Jesus Christ, by 
dying for us, has taken away the sting of death, and turned the grave 
into a passage to a blessed eternity. 

"Sixthly. Try to get nearer to the dear Redeemer. He offers rest to 
the heavy laden, pardon to the guilty, strength to the feeble, and life to 
the dead. 

" Seventhly. When you have considered your lost state, as a sinner, 
together with the greatness, the freeness, and the suitableness of Christ's 
salvation, believe in Him. Be not afraid to venture upon and trust in 
Him. Cast yourself on Him by frequent acts of reliance, and stay your 
soul on Him by means of His promises. Pray much for faith, and be 
not afraid of accepting, using, and thanking God for a little. 

" Eighthly. Beware of impatience, repining, and peevishness, which 
are the sins of sick people. Be gentle, easy to be pleased, and resigned 
as the bleeding Lamb of God. Wrong tempers indulged, grieve, if they 
do not quench, the Spirit. 

"Ninthly. Do not repine at being in a strange country, far from 
your friends ; and, if your going to France does not answer the end 
proposed for your body, it will answer a spiritual end to your soul. 

" Tenthly. In praying, reading, hearing any person read, and medi- 
tating, do not consult feeble, fainting, weary flesh and blood ; for, at 
this rate, death may find you idle, and supine, instead of striving to 
enter in at the strait gate ; and, when your strength and vigour fail, 
remember that the Lord is the strength of your life and your portion 
for ever. ' ' 1 

Not many even faithful ministers of Christ would have 
written in such a strain as this to a young lady, the daughter 
of a wealthy merchant, leaving her native land, and ap- 
parently dying ; but Fletcher, like all the first Methodists, 
was intensely in earnest, and never thought of sacrificing 
fidelity for the sake of seeming courtesy. 

The young lady's father had given Fletcher a hamper of 
wine, and a parcel of broadcloth to be made into a suit of 
clothes, kindly requesting him not to send his coat again 
to be patched. In acknowledging this generous present, 
the needy and somewhat seedy Vicar wrote as follows : — 

"Madeley, July—, 1766. 
" My VERY DEAR Friend, — You should have a little mercy on your 
friends, in not loading them with such burdens of beneficence. How 
would you like to ~be loaded with kindnesses you could not return ? 
Were it not for a little of that grace which makes us not only willing, 
but happy to be nothing, to be obliged and dependent, your present 



Letters, 1791, p. 174. 



I IO 



Wesley' s Designated Successor. 



[1766. 



would make me quite miserable. I submit to be clothed and nourished 
by you, as your sen-ants are, without the happiness of serving you. To 
yield to this is as hard to friendship as it is to submit to be saved by 
free grace, without one scrap of our own righteousness. However, we 
are allowed, both in religion and friendship, to ease ourselves by thanks 
and prayers, till we have an opportunity of doing it by actions. I thank 
you then, my dear friend, and pray to God that you may receive His 
benefits as I do yours. 

"Your broadcloth can lap me round two or three times; but the 
mantle of Divine love, the precious fine robe of Jesus' s righteousness, 
can cover your soul a thousand times. The cloth, fine and good as it 
is, will not keep out a hard shower ; but that garment of salvation will 
keep out even a shower of brimstone and fire. Your cloth will wear 
out ; but that fine linen, the righteousness of saints, will appear with 
a finer lustre the more it is worn. The moth may fret your present, or 
the tailor may spoil it in cutting it ; but the present, which Jesus has 
made you, is out of the reach of the spoiler, and ready for present wear. 
Let me beseech you, my dear friend, to accept of this heavenly present, 
as I accept of your earthly one. I did not send you one farthing to 
purchase it : it came unsought, unasked, unexpected, as the seed of 
the woman came. It came just as I was sending a tailor to buy me 
cloth for a new coat, and I hope when you next see me, it will be in 
your present ; now let Jesus see you in His. Accept it freely. Wear 
no more the old rusty coat of nature and self-righteousness. Send no 
more to have it patched. Make your boast of an unbought suit, and 
love to wear the livery of Jesus. 

" You will then love His work. It will be your meat and drink to do 
it ; and, that you may be vigorous in doing it, as I shall take a little 
of your wine for my stomach's sake, take you a good deal of the wine 
of the kingdom for your soul's sake. Ever}- promise of the Gospel is 
a bottle, a cask that has a spring within, and can never be exhausted. 
Draw the cork of unbelief, and drink abundantly. Be not afraid of 
intoxication ; and if an inflammation follows, it will only be that of 
Divine love. Be more free with the heavenly wine, than I have been 
with the earthly, which you sent me. I have not tasted it yet, but 
whose fault is it ? Not yours certainly, but mine. If you do not drink 
daily out of the cup of salvation, whose fault is it? Not Jesus' s, but 
yours. Jesus gives you His righteousness to cover your nakedness, and 
the consolations of His Spirit to cheer and invigorate your soul. Accept 
and use. Wear, drink, and live to God." 1 

Fletcher was religious in everything, and all his faculties 
were sanctified. He could not even acknowledge the kind- 
ness of his friend without introducing religion ; but, to do 
this gracefully, he exercises, not his manly understanding, 



1 Letters, 1791, p. 178. 



Age 36.] 



An Excursion. 



1 1 1 



but his sportive fancy. \" Fancy," said fanciful Thomas 
Fuller, "can adorn whatever" it touches, can invest naked 
fact and dry reasoning with unlooked-for beauty, make 
flowerets bloom even on the brow of a precipice, and, when 
nothing better can be had, can turn the very substance of 
the rock itself into moss and lichens/' Few men have pos- 
sessed a finer fancy than Fletcher did ; but his was rarely 
used except for religious purposes. He might have been an 
accomplished allegorist ; but he preferred to be a scriptural 
reasoner. His creed was founded, not upon fancies, but 
upon facts. Hence, in the same month that he wrote the 
foregoing letter to Mr. Ireland, he wrote as follows to Miss 
Hatton : — 

"Madeley, July 17, 1766. 
" Let your faith be rational as well as affectionate. God is good. 
He does not want us to take His word without proof. What expec- 
tations of the Messiah from the beginning of the world ! What amazing 
miracles and wonders were wrought in favour of that people and family, 
from which He was to come ! What prophecies fulfilled, that we might 
rationally believe ! What displays of the Godhead in that heavenly 
man, Christ Jesus ! In Him dwelt, of a truth, the fulness of the 
Godhead bodily. You see the power of God in His miracles ; the 
goodness of God in His character ; the justice and mercy of God in 
His death ; the truth, and faithfulness, and glory of God in His resur- 
rection, in the coming of His Spirit, and in the preaching of His 
everlasting Gospel. O, my friend, we may believe rationally. We 
may, with calm attention, view the emptiness of all other religions, and 
the fulness of assurance that ours affords." 1 

Soon after the date of this letter, Fletcher proceeded to 
London, to Brighton, and to Oathall, where he had sweet 
intercourse with the Countess of Huntingdon, Romaine, 
Venn, Sir Charles Hotham, and with a gentleman and lady 
from his own country, who were visiting the Countess, and 
Mr. and Mrs. Powys of Berwick, in Shropshire, Mr. Powys 
being a gentleman of high connections and of large fortune, 
and who had, about this period, become conspicuous, in 
conjunction with Sir Richard Hill and Mr. Lee, of Cotery, 
for zeal in the cause of God and truth. 2 



1 Letters, 1791, p. 180. 

2 " Life and Times of the Countess of Huntingdon," vol. i., p. 375. 



112 



Wesley* s Designated Successor. 



[1766. 



While staying with Lady Huntingdon at Oathall, Fletcher 
wrote another pastoral letter, which could not have been 
more faithful, but might, perhaps with advantage, have been 
more gentle. 

" Oathall, Sussex, September 23, 1766. 

" To those who love or fear the Lord Jesus at Madeley, grace, peace, 
and love be multiplied unto you, from our God and Saviour Jesus Christ ! 

"Providence, my dear brethren, called me so suddenly from among 
you, that I had no time to take my leave of you, and recommend myself 
to your prayers. But I hope the good Spirit of our God, who is the 
Spirit of love and supplication, has brought me to your remembrance, 
as the poorest and weakest of Christ's ministers, whose hands stand 
most in need of being strengthened and lifted up by your prayers. Pray 
on then, for yourselves, for one another, and for him whose glory it is to 
minister to you in spiritual things, and whose sorrow it is not to do it in 
a manner more suitable to the majesty of the Gospel, and more pro- 
fitable to your souls. My heart is with you, nevertheless I bear patiently 
this bodily separation for three reasons. 

" 1. The variety of more faithful and able ministers, which you have 
during my absence, is more likely to be serviceable to you than my 
presence among you, and I would always prefer your profit to my own 
satisfaction. 

"2. I hope Providence will give me those opportunities of conversing 
and praying with a greater variety of experienced Christians, which will 
tend to my own improvement, and, I trust, in the end, to yours. 

"3. I flatter myself that, after some weeks' absence, my ministry will 
be recommended by the advantage of novelty, which (the more the 
pity) goes farther with some than the Word itself. In the meantime, I 
shall give you some advice, which, it may be, will prove both suitable 
and serviceable to you. 

"Endeavour to improve daily under the ministry that Providence 
blesses you with. Be careful to attend it with diligence, faith, and 
prayer. Would it not be a great shame if, when ministers come thirty 
or forty miles to offer you peace and pardon, strength and comfort, in 
the name of God, any of you should slight the giorious message, or 
hear it as if it was nothing to you, and as if you heard it not ? See 
then that you never come from a sermon without being more deeply 
convinced of sin and righteousness. In order to this,— 

"Use much prayer before you go to church. Consider that your 
next appearance there may be in a coffin, and entreat the Lord to give 
you now so to hunger and thirst after righteousness that you may be 
filled therewith. Hungry people never go fasting from a feast. Call 
to mind the text I preached from the last Sunday but one before I left 
you, — 'Wherefore, laying aside all malice, and all guile, and hypocrisies, 
and envies, and all evil speakings, as new born babes desire the 
sincere milk of the Word, that ye may grow thereby ' (1 Peter ii. 1, 2). 

" When you are under the Word, beware of sitting as judges, and not 



Age 37.] 



Another Pastoral Letter. 



113 



like criminals. Many judge of the manner, matter, voice, or person 
of the preacher. You, perhaps, judge all the congregation when you 
should judge yourselves guilty of eternal death and yet worthy of 
eternal life, through the worthiness of Him who stood and was con- 
demned at Pilate's bar for you. The moment you have done crying to 
God as guilty, or thanking Christ as reprieved, criminals, you have 
reason to believe that this advice is levelled at you. 

" When you have been at a means of grace and do not find yourselves 
sensibly quickened, let it be matter of deep humiliation to you. For 
want of repenting of their unbelief and hardness of heart, some get into 
a habit of deadness and indolence, so that they come to be as insensible 
and as little ashamed of themselves as stones. 

" Beware of the inconsistent behaviour of those who complain that 
they are full of wandering in the evening under the Word when they 
have suffered their minds to wander from Christ all the day long. Oh ! 
get acquainted with Him, that you may walk in Him and with Him. 
f Whatsoever you do or say, especially in the things of God, do or say 
lt^as if Christ was before, behind, and on each side of you. Indeed, f 
He is so, whether you consider it or not ; for when He visibly appeared 
on earth, He called Himself ' the Son of Man which is in heaven ; ' 
how much more then is He present on earth now that He makes 
His immediate appearance in heaven ? '-, Make conscience then to 
maintain a sense of His blessed presence all the day long, and all 
the day long you will have a continual feast. For, can you conceive 
anything more delightful than to be always at the fountain of love, 
peace, beauty, and joy, — at the spring of power, wisdom, goodness, and 
truth ? Can there be a purer and more melting happiness than to be 
with the best of fathers, the kindest of brothers, the most generous of 
benefactors, and the tenderest of husbands ? Now Jesus is all this and 
much more to the believing soul. Oh ! believe, my friends, believe in 
Jesus now, through a continual now ; and until you can thus believe, 
mourn over your unbelieving heart ; drag it to Him as you can ; think 
of the efficacy of His blood shed for the ungodly ; and wait for the 
Spirit of faith from on high. 

"Some of you wonder why you cannot believe, why you cannot see 
Jesus with the eye of your mind, and delight in Him with the affections 
of your heart. I apprehend the reason to be one of these, or perhaps 
altogether. 

"1. You are not poor, lost, undone, helpless, despairing sinners in / 
yourselves. You indulge spiritual and refined self-righteousness ; you 
are not yet dead to the law, and quite slain by the commandment. Now 
the kingdom of heaven belongs to none but the poor in spirit. Jesus 
came to save none, but the lost. What wonder then, if Jesus is little to r 
you, and if you do not live in His kingdom of peace, righteousness, and 
joy in the Holy Ghost ? 

"2. Perhaps you spend your time in curious reasonings, instead of 
casting yourselves as forlorn sinners at the feet of Christ, leaving it to 
Him to bless you when and in the manner He pleases. Know that 

8 



H4 Wesley s Designated Successor, [1766. 



He is the wise and sovereign God, and that it is your duty to lie before 
Him as clay, as fools, as sinful nothings. 

"3. Perhaps, also, some of you wilfully keep idols of one kind or 
another ; you indulge some sin against light and knowledge, and it is 
neither matter of humiliation, nor of confession to you. The love of 
praise, that of the world, that of money, and that of sensual gratifications, 
when not lamented, are as implacable enemies to Christ as Judas and 
Herod were. How can ye believe, seeing ye seek the honour that 
cometh from men ? Hew then your Agags in pieces before the Lord. 
Run from your Delilahs to Jesus resolutely. Cut off the right hand and 
pluck out the right eye that offends you. ' Come out from among them, 
and be separate, saith the Lord, and I will receive you.' Nevertheless, 
when you strive, take care not to make yourself a righteousness of your 
own striving. Remember that justifying righteousness is finished and 
brought in, and that your goodness can no more add to it than your 
sins diminish it. Shout then, ' the Lord your Righteousness ! ' And, 
if you are undone sinners, humbly and yet boldly say, 'In the Lord 
have I righteousness and strength.' 

"When I was in London, I endeavoured to make the best of my 
time ; that is to say, to hear, receive, and practise the Word. Accord- 
ingly, I went to Mr. Whitefield's Tabernacle, and heard him give his" 
Society a most sweet exhortation upon love. He began by observing 
that when the Apostle St. John was old and past walking and preaching, 
he would not forsake the assembling himself with his brethren, as the 
manner of too many is, upon little or no pretence at all. On the 
contrary, he got himself carried to their meeting, and, with his last 
thread of voice, preached to them his final sermon made up of this one 
sentence, 'My little children, love one another.' I wish, I pray, I 
earnestly beseech you to follow that evangelical, apostolical advice ; 
and till God makes you all little children, little in your own eyes, and 
simple as little children, give me leave to say, dear brethren, love one 
another, and, of course, judge not, provoke not, be not shy of one 
another, but bear one another's burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ. 
Yea, bear with one another's infirmities, and do not easily cast off any 
one, no not for sin, except it be obstinately persisted in. 

"My sheet is full, and so is my heart of good wishes for and strong 
longing after you all. I have just room to tell you I hope to be with 
you in three or four weeks' time. Oh ! let me have the comfort of 
finding you all believing and loving. Farewell, my dear brethren ! 
The blessing of God be with you all ! This is the earnest desire of 

" Your unworthy minister, 

" John Fletcher." 1 

This is a long but valuable letter — valuable for the senti- 
ments and advice it contains, and also as showing Fletcher's 



1 "Thirteen Original Letters," by Fletcher, published at Bath in 
1791, p. 20. 



Age 37.] 



Miss Hatton Dying, 



"5 



loving and faithful passion to save the souls of his parish- 
ioners. Comment upon it would be easy, but is unnecessary. 
When he wrote it, on September 23, he intended to return 
to Madeley in " three or four weeks' time," but at the be- 
ginning of November he was still in London. In a letter to 
Mr. Powys, dated the first of that month, Whitefield re- 
marked, " Dear Mr. Fletcher is become a scandalous Totten- 
ham Court preacher." 1 How long he continued to officiate in 
Whitefield's far-famed chapel it is impossible to tell ; but at 
the beginning of 1767 he was at Madeley, and wrote to 
Miss Hatton as follows : — 

" Madeley, January 9, 1767. 
"My Dear FRIEND,— The dream of life will soon be over; the 
morning of eternity will soon succeed. Away then with all the shadows 
of time ! Away from them to the Eternal Sitbstaiice — to Jesas, the 
First a?id the Last, by whom, and for whom, all things consist. If 
you take Jesus to be your head, by the mystery of faith, you will be 
united to the resurrection and the life. The bitterness of death is past, 
my dear friend. Only look to Jesus. He died for you — -died in your 
place — died under the frowms of heaven, that we might die under its 
smiles. Regard neither unbelief nor doubt. Fear neither sin nor hell. 
Choose neither life nor death. All these are swallowed up in the immen- 
sity of Christ, and are triumphed over in His cross. Fight the good 
fight of faith. Hold fast your confidence in the atoning, sanctifying 
blood of the Lamb of God. Confer no more with flesh and blood. Go, 
meet the bridegroom. Behold He cometh ! Trim your lamp. Quit 
yourself like a soldier of Jesus. I entreatyo\i, as a companion in tribu- 
lation; I charge you, as a minister, go, at every breath you draw, to 
Him, who says, ' Him that cometh unto me, I will in no wise cast out: ' 
and ' He that believeth in Me, though he were dead, yet shall he live.' 
Joyfully sing the believer's song, 'O death, where is thy sting? O 
grave, where is thy victory ? Thanks be to God, who giveth us the 
victory, through our Lord Jesus Christ ! ' Let your surviving friends 
triumph over you, as one faithful unto death, — as one triumphing in 
death itself." 2 

Three weeks after this, the Christian lady thus addressed 
was dead. 3 Fletcher, in a letter to Mr. Ireland, wrote : — 

" Poor Miss Hatton died full of serenity, faith, and love. The four 
last hours of her life were better than all her sickness. When the pangs 



1 Whitefield's Works, vol. iii., p. 339. 

2 Letters, 1791, p. 189. 

3 Ibid, p. 190. 



n6 



Wesley's Designated Successor. [1767- 



of death were upon her, the comforts of the Almighty bore her triumph- 
antly through, and some of her last words were : ' Grieve not at my 
happiness. \This world is no more to me than a bit of burnt papery 
Grace ! Grace ! A sinner saved ! I wish I could tell you half of what 
I feel and see. I am going to keep an everlasting Sabbath. O death, 
where is thy sting ? O grave, where is thy victory ? Thanks be to God, 
who giveth me the victory, through my Lord Jesus Christ ! ' It is very 
remarkable that she had hardly any joy in her illness ; but God made 
her ample amends in her extremity. He keeps His strongest cordial 
for the time of need. Blessed, for ever blessed, be His holy name ! " 1 

As already stated, Fletcher, when in London, had preached 
in Tottenham Court Road Chapel. Whitefield wrote a letter, 
thanking him for his services. Fletcher's highly character- 
istic reply was as follows : — 

" Rev. and Dear Sir, — I am confounded when I receive a letter 
from you. Present and eternal contempt from Christ and all His mem- 
bers is what I deserve. A sentence of death is my due ; but, instead 
of it, I am favoured with lines of love. Your mentioning my poor minis- 
trations among your congregation opens again a wound of shame, that 
was but half healed. I feel the need of asking God, you, and your 
hearers to pardon me, for weakening the glorious matter of the Gospel 
by my wretched broken manner, and for spoiling the heavenly power of 
it by the uncleanness of my heart and lips. 

" I should be glad to be your curate some time this year ; but I see 
no opening, nor the least prospect of any. What between the dead and 
living, a parish ties one down more than a wife. If I could go anywhere 
this year, it should be to Yorkshire, to accompany Lady Huntingdon, 
according to a design that I had half formed last year ; but I fear I 
shall be debarred even from this. I set out, God willing, to-morrow 
morning for Trevecca, to meet her ladyship there, and to show her the 
way to Madeley, where she proposes to stay three or four days, on her 
way to Derbyshire. 

" Last Sunday seven-night, Captain Scott preached to my congrega- 
tion a sermon, which was more blessed, though preached only upon my 
horse-block, than a hundred of those I preach in the pulpit. I invited 
him to come and treat her ladyship next Sunday with another, now the 
place is consecrated. If you should ever favour Shropshire with your 
presence, you shall have the captain's, or the parson's, pulpit at your 
option. Many ask me, whether you will not come to have some fruit 
here also. What must I answer them ? I, and many more, complain 
of a stagnation of the work. What must we do ? Everything buds and 
blossoms about us, yet our winter is not over. 

" Present my Christian respects to Mrs. Whitefield, Mr. Hardy, Mr. 



1 Letters, 1791, p. 192. 



Age 37-] Lady Huntingdon at Madeley. 117 



Keen, Mr. Joyce, Mr. Croom, and Mr. Wright. Tell Mr. Keen I am 
a letter in his debt, and postpone writing it till I have had such a sight 
of Christ as to breathe His love through every line. 

" I am, rev. and dear Sir, with sincere affection and respect, your 
willing, though halting and unworthy servant, 

"J. Fletcher." 1 

Captain Scott, the martial evangelist, mentioned in this 
letter, was a Shropshire man, and belonged to an ancient 
and respectable family. He had begun his military life as 
a cornet, and had been promoted to the rank of captain in 
the 7th regiment of dragoons. A short time before his first 
visit to Madeley, Fletcher, in a letter to the Countess of 
Huntingdon, remarked : — 

" I went last Monday to meet Captain Scott, one of the fruits that 
have grown for the Lord at Oathall, — a captain of a truth — a bold soldier 
of Christ. God has thrown down before him the middle wall of bigotry, 
and he boldly launches into an irregular usefulness. For some months, 
he has exhorted his dragoons daily ; and, for some weeks, he has 
preached publicly in the Methodist Meeting House, in his regimentals, 
to numerous congregations, with good success. The stiff regular ones 
pursue him with hue and cry ; but, I believe, he is quite beyond their 
reach. God keep him zealous and simple ! I believe this red coat will 
shame many a black one. I am sure he shames me." 2 

In the year 1767, the Countess of Huntingdon was much 
occupied in making preparations for the opening of her 
college at Trevecca, in Wales. From the commencement of 
this important project, Fletcher was one of her ladyship's 
chosen advisers. In the month of April, he met her at 
Trevecca, and escorted her to Madeley, where she spent 
several days on her way to Yorkshire. The visit was a 
memorable one. Her ladyship was accompanied by Lady 
Anne Erskine and Miss Orton. The rich Christian com- 
munion of these three noble ladies with the poor vicar may 
be imagined, but cannot be described. It was, probably, at 
this period that the Countess was led to think of Fletcher as 
the future president of her college. At all events, in the 
following year, he was appointed to that important office. 3 



1 Evangelical Magazine, 1802, p. 346. 

2 " Life and Times of the Countess of Huntingdon," vol. i., pp. 317, 
318. 

3 Ibid, vol. i., p. 288 ; ii., p. iv. 



1 1 8 Wesley* s Designated Successor. [1767. 



Captain Scott also was at Madeley, and though Fletcher, 
of course, could not allow him the use of the pulpit of the 
parish church, he had him mounted upon the horse-block of 
the parish parsonage, where he preached twice, on Sunday, 
to large congregations; and on the day following, in Madeley 
Wood, an immense concourse of people assembled to hear 
him, many of whom were drawn thither by curiosity, to 
see the famous Countess and the preaching soldier. 

Up to the time of the Countess's visit, Fletcher was in 
doubt whether he would be able to attend her in Yorkshire, 
but, before she left Madeley Vicarage, it was arranged that 
he should follow her immediately after Whit-Sunday. Mr. 
Ireland wished him to visit Bristol, and certainly he had 
some claim upon him ; for, to say nothing of the valuable 
presents he had sent, for the use of Fletcher and the poor of 
Madeley, he had secured for them a most acceptable curate, 
to serve the parish during Fletcher's absence. Fletcher, for 
the present, was obliged to decline his friend's invitation. 
Hence the following letter to him : — 

" Madeley, Afiril 27, 1767. 
"My Very Dear Friend, — I have just received your letter, upon 
my arrival from Wales with dear Lady Huntingdon, who is, of a truth, 
a tried stone, built upon the corner stone, and such as you have seen 
her, such, I am persuaded, you will find her to the last, — a soul devoted 
to Jesus, living by faith, going to Christ Himself by the Scriptures, 
instead of resting in the letter of the Gospel promises, as too many 
professors do. 

11 1 thank you for your care to procure not only a supply for my church, 
but such an agreeable, acceptable, and profitable one as Mr. Brown. 
I know no one that should be more welcome than he. Tell him, with a 
thousand thanks for his condescension, that I deliver my charge over to 
him fully, and give him a carte blanche, to do or not to do, as the Lord 
will direct him. I have settled it, that I shall endeavour to overtake 
my lady at Kippax, in Yorkshire, against the Sunday after Whitsuntide 

"With regard to the Bristol journey, I must first come from the north, 
before I dream of going to the south. God help us to steer immovably 
to the grand point of our salvation, — Jesus, the Crucified / To Him 
I recommend myself, and you, and my noble guests. Love Him, — 
praise Him, — serve Him, who hath loved you, bought you, and died for 
you." 1 



1 Letters, 1791, p. 196. 



Age 37.] 



Fletcher in Yorkshire, 



119 



In the year 1767, Whit-Sunday occurred on June 7, and, 
during the week following, Fletcher joined the Countess of 
Huntingdon at Huddersfield, where her ladyship was staying, 
for a few days, with Venn, at the vicarage. On Sunday, 
the 14th, he preached twice in Venn's church, to large and 
deeply attentive congregations. He then accompanied the 
Countess to Aberford, on a visit to Benjamin Ingham, who 
had married her niece, Lady Margaret Hastings. Whilst 
there, accompanied by the Rev. Joseph Townsend, Rector 
of Pewsey, in Wiltshire, who had preached at the opening of 
Lady Huntingdon's chapel at Bath, in 1765, the whole 
family party at Aberford made an excursion to Haworth. 
Grimshaw, the brave-hearted incumbent, to whom Yorkshire 
Methodism owes so much, had died four years before, and 
had been succeeded by the Rev. Mr. Richardson, a good 
man, and evangelical in his principles, but averse to open-air 
preaching, in which his predecessor had delighted. The 
intended visit to Haworth having become known, and it 
being understood that Fletcher and Mr. Townsend would 
preach, an immense multitude of people assembled to hear 
them. Application was made for the use of what was called 
" Mr. Whitefield's pulpit," that is, a scaffold erected by the 
side of Haworth church, and from which Whitefield was 
wont to thunder his overwhelming sermons. Mr. Richardson 
refused the request. Lady Huntingdon remonstrated ; and, 
though it is not stated that the scaffold was brought out, it 
is known that both Fletcher and Townsend preached in the 
churchyard. 

On leaving Aberford, the Countess and her friends pro- 
ceeded to Kippax, on a visit to her niece, Mrs. Medhurst. 
Here, at the beginning of July, they were joined by the 
Rev. Martin Madan ; and now the village of Kippax became 
the centre of some of the most remarkable evangelistic efforts 
recorded in Methodistic annals. For some weeks, Fletcher, 
of Madeley; Madan, from London; Venn, Vicar of Hudders- 
field ; Conyers, Rector of Helmsley ; Burnet, Vicar of Elland; 
Ryland, Curate of Huddersfield ; Bentley, Vicar of Kippax ; 
and Powley, Vicar of Dewsbury, made frequent excursions 
not only in the immediate neighbourhood of Kippax, but to 
distant parts of the county, affectionately inviting the multi- 



120 



Wesley s Designated Successor. 



[1767. 



tudes who flocked to hear them to flee from the wrath to 
come. 1 Unfortunately, the details of these missionary labours 
seem to be irrecoverably lost ; and it can only be added that, 
in consequence of being seized with a rather alarming illness, 
the Countess of Huntingdon was not able to take part in 
many of the services. After Fletcher's return to Madeley, he 
wrote to her ladyship as follows : — 

"My Very Dear and Honoured Lady, — The God of Abraham, 
Isaac, and Jacob, who tried Israel, and led them through man)- a 
wandering to the good Jand — this faithful God has met with you ; a rod- 
is in His hand, but that hand bears so deep 3. print of iove, that the 
design of His visitation cannot be mistaken. Nor does He come without 
the supporting staff. He kills to make alive. He wounds to heal. 
He afflicts to comfort, and to do it more deeply and effectually. My 
hearty prayer for your ladyship is, that you may drink the cup the Lord 
holds out to you as a new token of His unchangeable love. I call it 
unchangeable, because it is really so in its nature, though the appear- 
ances of it greatly vary for the trial of faith. ' I am God,' says He ; ' I 
change not, therefore Israel is not consumed,' and Shadrach is kept in 
the burning fiery furnace. 

" I have often heard your ladyship speak admirably upon knowing 
Christ, and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His 
sufferings . The Lord will have you improve in that heavenly know- 
ledge ; therefore He gives you so long a lesson at this time. The lesson 
is hard, I grant ; but the Master is so loving, the science so noble, and 
the scholar so used to severe exercises, that it is no wonder you are 
placed on the highest form. No cross — no crown ! The heavier the 
cross, the brighter the crown ! 

" Till I received Lady Anne's letter, I often wanted to persuade myself 
that your ladyship had got quite well soon after I left Kippax. I beg 
my best respects and warmest thanks to Mr. and Mrs. Medhurst, Miss 
Medhurst, and the dear company of your ladyship. Their kindness 
and patience towards me while at Kippax have laid me under a heavy 
burden of obligations, which I desire gratefully to acknowledge. 

" Through a mistake of our good friend Ireland, dear Mr. Glascott 
came here the day after I arrived from Yorkshire. He stayed only one 
day. This stripling will throw down Goliath. I blessed that cross and 
accident which brought me acquainted with a young soldier that made 
me so ashamed of myself. Mr. Hill 2 is gone to Brighton, where I hope 
he will be as useful as he is in Shropshire. Captain Scott set out last 
Monday for York, after making a great stir for good in Shrewsbury. 



1 " Life and Times of the Countess of Huntingdon," vol. i., pp. 290, 
291. 

2 Afterwards Sir Richard Hill, Bart., one of Fletcher's antagonists in 
the Calvinian controversy. 



Age 38.] 



Rev. Cradock Glascotl. 



121 



"I am loth to trouble Lady Anne with a request of a line, to know- 
how your ladyship does, yet I know not well how to give up the hope 
that she will once more steal two minutes for it. 

" I am, with peculiar thanks to Lady Anne for her letter, and to your 
ladyship for numberless favours, my lady, your most indebted and obliged 
servant, 

" J. Fletcher." 1 

No further reference to the illness of the Countess of 
Huntingdon is needed ; but a few lines may be added con- 
cerning Mr. Glascott, whom Mr. Ireland had sent to Madeley 
to officiate during Fletcher's supposed absence. This young 
clergyman had been ordained at Oxford in 1765. For two 
years, he had served the curacy of Cheveley, in Berkshire, 
and had been recently dismissed. He was now introduced 
to Lady Huntingdon, became her assistant chaplain, and 
laboured in her connexion till 1 78 1. Mr. Ireland then pre- 
sented him to the vicarage of Hatherleigh, in Devonshire. 
Here he prayed and preached for nearly fifty years; and 
here he died, in the full triumph of the faith of Christ, on 
the 1 8th of August, 1830. 2 

For years past, Fletcher and Whitefield had been sympa- 
thizing and warm-hearted friends, but, up to the present, 
Whitefield had not been to Madeley. After Fletcher's 
departure from Yorkshire, Whitefield succeeded him in that 
county, and glorious were the seasons which Lady Huntingdon 
and the great evangelist enjoyed at Kippax, Huddersfield, 
Leeds, and other places. Fletcher urged Wmitefield to call 
at Madeley on his way to what he called his "winter quarters " 
in London ; but Whitefield found it impracticable to comply 
with his friend's request. 3 Thus was lost an opportunity 
that did not recur. Whitefield never preached in Madeley 
church. He died in 1770. 

The Countess of Huntingdon spent the winter of 1767 
chiefly at Bath, and was in constant correspondence with 
Fletcher concerning her college at Trevecca. Her proposal 
was to admit no young men except such as were truly con- 
verted to God, and resolved to dedicate themselves to His 



1 " Life and Times of the Countess of Huntingdon," vol. i., p. 296. 

2 Ibid, vol. ii., p. 464. 

3 Ibid, vol. i., p. 299. 



12 2 



Wesley ) s Designated Successor. 



[1767. 



service. All admitted might stay three years, and be clothed, 
boarded, lodged, and educated gratuitously. Afterwards, 
those who desired it might enter the Christian ministry, either 
in the Church of England or among Protestants of any other 
/ denomination. The scheme was generous, and as free from 
bigotry as it could be. Her ladyship had to select first 
of all a president, and her choice fell upon Fletcher. He 
accepted her invitation. It was impossible that he should 
be generally resident at Trevecca, much less constantly; his 
duty to his Madeley parishioners would not admit of this; 
but he promised to attend as often as he conveniently could ; 
to give advice respecting the appointment of masters and the 
admission of students ; to revise the studies and conduct of 
the latter, and to assist their piety, and judge of their qualifi- 
cations for the work of the ministry. All this was to be 
done without any fee or reward whatever. 

The plan for the examination of candidates for admission 
was drawn up by her ladyship. It was then submitted to 
Romaine, Venn, Wesley, and others, and received their 
approval. The Countess finally sent it to her president 
elect, who returned the following answer : — 

" Madeley, November 24, 1767. 
" My Dear Lady, — I received the proposals which your ladyship has 
drawn up for the examination 'of the young men who may appear proper 
candidates for the Trevecca academy ; and I gratefully acknowledge 
your kindness in allowing me to propose suitable young men resident 
in my parish. 

" Our Israel is small, my lady, and if among six hundred thousand 
only two faithful men were found of old, the Joshuas and Calebs cannot 
be numerous among us. After having perused the articles, and looked 
round about me, I designed to answer your ladyship, ' Out of this Galilee 
ariseth no ftrofthet' With this resolution I went to bed, but, in my 
sleep, was much taken up with the thought and remembrance of one of 
my young colliers, who told me, some months ago, that for four years 
he had been inwardly persuaded he should be called to speak for God. 
I looked upon the unusual impression of my dream as a call to^speak to 
the young man, and at waking desired to do so at the first opportunity. 
To my great surprise, he came to Madeley that very morning, and I 
found upon enquiry that he had been as much drawn to come as I to 
speak to him. This encouraged me to speak of your ladyship's design, 
and I was satisfied by his conversation that I might venture to propose 
him to your ladyship for further examination. 

" His name is fames Glazebrook, collier and getter of ironstone in 



Age 38.] Fletcher, Chaplain of the Earl of Buchan. 123 



Madeley wood. He is now twenty-three — by look nineteen. He has 
been awakened seven years. He has been steady from the beginning 
of his profession, at least so far as to be kept outwardly unblameable, 
but has seemed to me to walk mostly in heaviness. What I told him 
was as oil put into a glimmering lamp/and he seems to revive upon 
hearing of the little outward call. Notwithstanding his strong desire 
to exhort, he has not yet attempted to do so; and his not being forward 
to run of himself, makes me have the better hope his call is from God. 
He has no mean gift in singing and prayer. His judgment and sense 
are superior to his station, and he does not seem to be discouraged by 
the severest part of your ladyship's proposals. One difficulty stood in 
the way. He maintains by his labour his aged mother; but this is made 
easy by his mother's leave, and the promise of an elder son to maintain 
her if he can have his brother's place in the pit. 

"With regard to the superintendency of the college, or the examina- 
tion of the candidates, I know myself too well to dream about it; never- 
theless, so far as my present calling and poor abilities will allow, I am 
ready to throw my mite into the treasury. 

"Some of our conversations upon the manifestations of the Son of 
Man to the heart have led me into many an hour's consideration. The 
Holy Ghost alone can clear up the points to pursue. Nevertheless, I 
have found both comfort and profit in setting upon paper the reflections 
I have been enabled to make upon the mysterious subject ; and they 
have, through mercy, set my soul more than ever against the rampant 
1k, errors of Sandemanianism . Should Providence ever favour me with an 
opportunity, I would bespeak an hour of your ladyship's time to ratify 
my views of the point, under God. 

" I am happily provided with a schoolmaster to my mind, and my 
ministry is the last under which I would advise any one intended for a 
preacher to sit. Nevertheless, if the young candidate, (Mr. Eastwood) 
mentioned in the letter, wants retirement and a prophet's room at my 
house he may have it, if he can cook -for himself or find a table in the 
neighbourhood." 1 

There is only one other incident, in the life of Fletcher, 
deserving attention and belonging to the year 1767 ; and as 
it can be summarily dispatched, it may be best to mention it at 
once, before returning to two matters in his letter to the Countess 
of Huntingdon, which will require more extended notice. 

On December 1, the tenth Earl of Buchan died at Bath, 
and was succeeded by his son, who appointed Fletcher, Venn, 
and Berridge to be his chaplains. In a letter to Lady 
Huntingdon, referring to the appointment, Fletcher wrote: — 

" I have just received a letter from Lord Buchan, in which he says, 
' Pray for me, that I also may be found faithful when our Master calls 



1 " Life and Times of the Countess of Huntingdon," vol. if., p. 82. 



124 Wesley's Designated Successor. 



[1767. 



for me, and that I may live a martyr to redeeming love, and die a trophy 
and a monument of the reality of the despised influences of the Holy 
Ghost.' It is a singular honour to belong to so excellent a nobleman, 
Oh ! how far below his grace is his nobility ! I feel a strong desire to 
pray that he may be kept from the fickleness of youth 1 and the baits of 
ambition. I share in the happiness of Lady Buchan and Lady Anne 
Erskine upon the occasion. May God make them, together with your 
ladyship, a fourfold cord to draw sinners unto Jesus." 2 

Fletcher evidently was pleased with his appointment. The 
emoluments of his new office probably were small, perhaps 
nil; but, by means of it, he became associated with one of 
the most pious and exemplary noblemen of the day. 

To recur to Fletcher's former letter to the Countess of 
Huntingdon. 

He nominated James Glazebrook as a fitting candidate to 
be examined for admission into Lady Huntingdon's intended 
college. As already stated, Glazebrook was a poor, hard- 
working collier. He was without money and without learning; 
but he had two of the three things by which Wesley tested 
the Divine call of his itinerants to preach ; namely, "grace" 
and " gifts ; " and Fletcher had no doubt that when the 
opportunity arrived, he would have the third — "fruit." 
Wesley's own definitions of these three words were : — 

" Grace : a knowledge of God as a pardoning God; the love of God 
abiding in them ; desiring and seeking nothing but God ; and the being 
holy in all manner of conversation. Gifts : in some tolerable degree a 
clear, sound understanding ; a right judgment in the things of God ; a 
just conception of salvation by faith ; and a degree of utterance so as 
to be able to speak justly, readily, clearly. Fruit ; are any truly con- 
vinced of sin and converted to God by their preaching ? As long as 
these three marks concur in any, we believe he is called of God to 
preach." 

Whether Fletcher adopted Wesley's threefold test, and 
applied it to James Glazebrook, it is impossible to ascertain ; 
but that his opinion of the young man was correct, subsequent 
events fully proved. Glazebrook was one of Fletcher's 
converts. He was one of the first students at Trevecca 
college, if not the very first. There he distinguished himself 



1 The new earl was only twenty-four years of age. 

2 " Life and Times of the Countess of Huntingdon," vol. ii., p. 19. 



Age 38.] 



James Glazebrook. 



equally by his superior abilities and his uncommon diligence. 
He allowed himself but little time for refreshment, rest, or 
recreation. His piety was as remarkable as his gifts and 
diligence. He was soon sent forth to preach, and his labours 
were attended with considerable success. For three years, 
he was thus employed in various parts of England. He 
then tired of the itinerant life, and desired the Countess of 
Huntingdon to procure him orders in the Established Church. 
With the assistance of Fletcher a title was obtained, and 
Glazebrook was ordained deacon by the Bishop of Lichfield, 
in December 1 77 1 . Soon after his ordination, he entered 
on the curacy of Smisby, in Derbyshire ; after which he 
served the curacies of Rowley Regis, near Birmingham ; 
Shawbury, Shropshire ; Ravenstone, in Derbyshire ; and 
Hugglescote, in Leicestershire. In 1777, he was ordained 
priest by Dr. Hurd, Bishop of Worcester. Two years later, he 
married the eldest daughter of Thomas Kirkland, Esq., M.D., 
of Ashby-de-la-Zouch, an intimate friend of the Countess of 
Huntingdon ; and, soon after his marriage, became minister 
of St. James's, Warrington. Ultimately, Lord Moira pre- 
sented him to the vicarage of Belton, a village in Leicestershire, 
whose living even now is not worth more than about £180 
a year. Here he continued till the time of his decease; and 
here, as well as at Warrington and other places, he was made 
trie honoured instrument of "turning many to righteousness." 
Besides his ministerial labours, he wrote and published a 
" Treatise on Extemporary Preaching," " Letters on Infant 
Baptism," an " Answer to Gilbert Wakefield's Treatise on 
Baptism," and, after his death, his family published a volume 
of his sermons, which was well received by the public. Such, 
in brief, was the history of Fletcher's convert and protege. 
Further particulars concerning him may be found in the 
Evangelical Register for 1836. 

The other matter, requiring attention, in Fletcher's letter 
to Lady Huntingdon, under the date of November 24, 1767, 
is his reference to the conversations he had had with her 
ladyship upon the " Manifestations of the Son of Man to 
the heart," and the fact that he had devoutly studied this 
mysterious subject for " many hours," and had put his 
thoughts "upon paper." This important manuscript was 



126 



Wesley s Designated Successor. [1767- 



not published until after Fletcher's death. The editor of his 
collected works, in a brief preface, says : — 

" For the Letters on the Manifestation of Christ, the reader is obliged 
to Mrs. Fletcher. When they were written, or to whom they are ad- 
dressed, is uncertain ; but, from the beginning of the first letter, the 
decayed state of the manuscript, and the extreme smallness of the 
character, which could scarcely have been legible to the author in his 
latter } r ears, they are supposed to have been the first essay of a genius 
afterwards so much admired. The reader is requested to remember 
that the pious author wrote only for himself and his friends ; that these 
sheets want his perfecting hand ; and that the editor thought himself 
entitled to take no liberties." 

From this preface, it is evident that the editor was not 
acquainted with the foregoing letter to the Countess of 
Huntingdon; and it may be added, that there is no need 
for the apology, that the " sheets want " Fletcher's " perfecting 
hand." 

The Letters are six in number, and fill fifty-three octavo 
pages in Fletcher's collected works. 1 It is extremely difficult 
to give, in a brief form, the substance of these important 
papers ; and yet the task must be attempted, because the 
subject is one of great interest, and because the Letters 
seem to have been among the earliest of his compositions, 
that were afterwards published. 

His object is clearly stated in his opening paragraph : — 

"When I had the pleasure of seeing you last, you seemed surprised 
to hear me say, that the Son of God, for purposes worthy of His wisdom, 
manifests Himself, sooner or later, to all His sincere followers, in a 
spiritual manner, which the world knows not of. The assertion appeared 
to you unscriptural, enthusiastical, and dangerous. What I then ad- 
vanced to prove that it was scriptural, rational, and of the greatest 
importance, made you desire I would write 3 t ou on the mysterious sub- 
ject. I declined it, as being unequal to the task; but, having since 
considered that a mistake here may endanger your soul or mine, I sit 
down to comply with your request ; and the end I propose by it is; either 
to give you a fair opportunity of pointing out my error, if I am wrong, 
or to engage you, if I am right, to seek what I esteem the most in- 
valuable of all blessings, — revelations of Christ to your own soul, produc- 



1 They were first published by the Rev. Melville Home, in 1791, with 
the title, " Six Letters on the Spiritual Manifestation of the Son of God." 



ge 3S.] " The Manifestation of the Son of God. 1 ' 127 



tive of the experimental knowledge of Him, and the present enjoyment 
of His salvation." 

" I shall not be able to establish the doctrine I maintain unless you 
allow me the existence of the proper senses, to which our Lord manifests 
Himself. The manifestation I contend for being of a spiritual nature, 
must be made to spiritual senses ; and that such senses exist, and are 
opened in, and exercised by, regenerate souls, is what I design to prove 
in this letter " (the first), " by the joint testimony of Scripture, our 
Church, and reason." 

In his second letter, Fletcher defines what he means, and 
does not mean, by the manifestations of the Son of God to 
the soul of man. In the third and fourth, he dwells on the 
uses of such manifestations. The fifth contains a summary 
of the numerous appearances of the Son of God during the 
Old Testament dispensation, and concludes with answers to 
the objection that these appearances proved {i only, that God 
favoured the patriarchs and Jews with immediate revelations 
of Himself, because they had neither the Gospel nor the 
Scriptures." Fletcher's fourth answer to this objection is so 
characteristic that it must be quoted : — 

" If, because we have the letter of Scripture, we must be deprived of 
all immediate manifestations of Christ and His spirit, we are great 
losers by that blessed book, and we might reasonably say, ' Lord, bring 
us back to the dispensation of Moses ! Thy Jewish sen-ants could 
formerly converse with Thee face to face ; but now we can know nothing 
of Thee, but by their writings. They viewed Thy glory in various 
wonderful appearances ; but we are indulged only with black lines telling 
us of Thy glory. They had the bright Shekinah, and we have only 
obscure descriptions of it. They were blessed with lively oracles ; and 
we only with a dead letter. The ark of Thy covenant went before them, 
and struck terror into all their adversaries ; but a book, of which our 
enemies make daily sport, is the only revelation of Thy power among 
us. They made their boast of L'rim and Thummim, and received par- 
ticular, immediate answers from between the cherubim ; but we have 
only general ones, by means of Hebrew and Greek writings, which 
many do not understand. They conversed familiarly with Closes their 
mediator, with Aaron their high priest, and with Samuel their prophet ; 
these holy men gave them unerring directions in doubtful cases ; but, 
alas ! the apostles and inspired men are all dead ; and Thou, Jesus, 
our Mediator, Priest, and Prophet, canst not be consulted to any pur- 
pose, for Thou manifestest Thyself no more. As for Thy sacred book, 
Thou knowest that sometimes the want of money to purchase it, the 
want of learning to consult the original, the want of wisdom to under- 
stand the translation, the want of skill or sight to read it, prevent our 



128 Wesley s Designated Successor. [1767- 



improving it to the best advantage, and keep some from reaping any 
benefit from it at all. O Lord ! if, because we have this blessed picture 
of Thee, we must have no discovery of the glorious original, have com- 
passion on us, take back Thy precious book, and impart Thy more 
precious Self to us, as Thou didst to Thy ancient people ! " 

In his sixth and last Letter, Fletcher proves " that the New 
Testament, as well as the Old, abounds with accounts of 
particular revelations of the Son of God ;" and he concludes 
thus : — 

" Having thus led you from Genesis to Revelation, I conclude by two 
inferences, which appear to me undeniable. The first, that it is evident 
our Lord, before His incarnation, during His stay on earth, and after 
His ascension into heaven, hath been pleased, in a variety of manners, 
to manifest Himself to the children of men, both for the benefit of the 
Church in general, and for the conversion of sinners and the establish- 
ment of saints in particular. Secondly, that the doctrine, which I main- 
tain, is as old as Adam, as modern as St. John, the last of the inspired 
writers, and as scriptural as the Old and New Testaments, which is what I 
wanted to demonstrate." 

This is an imperfect outline of Fletcher's production, but 
want of space prevents enlargement. Some, with a scornful 
jeer, will brand Fletcher as a mystic ; and others, sincerely 
in search of truth, but who have not experienced that of 
which he speaks, will ask his meaning. Leaving the 
former to their own infidel or pharisaic wisdom, it may be 
said in reply to the latter, Fletcher meant nothing more than 
what Christ Himself meant in His sixth beatitude, " Blessed 
are the pure in heart, for they shall see God; " and again, in 
one of His latest utterances, " He that hath My command- 
ments and keepeth them, he it is that loveth Me ; and he 
that loveth Me shall be loved of My Father, and I will love 
him, and will manifest Myself to him." Or, again, Fletcher 
meant what St. Paul meant in texts like the following : — 
" The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of 
God ; for they are foolishness unto him ; neither can he 
know them, because they are spiritually discerned." - " God, 
who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath 
shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of 
the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ." " Now faith 
is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things 
not seen." 



Age 38.] ' ' The Manifestation of the Son of God." 129 



If it be asked, again, what is the meaning of these and 
such like texts ? it may be answered, substantially, — the 
meaning is the same as what is meant by stanzas like the 
following, written by John or Charles Wesley, and selected 
from their Hymn Book, almost at random :— 

" Spirit of faith, come down, 

Reveal the things of God ; 
And make to us the Godhead known, 

And witness with the blood. 
O that the world might know 

The all-atoning Lamb ! 
Spirit of faith ! descend and show 

The virtue of His name." 

" Come, Holy Ghost, (for moved by Thee 

The prophets wrote and spoke), 
Unlock the truth, Thyself the key, 

Unseal the sacred Book. 
Expand Thy wings, celestial Dove, 

Brood o'er our nature's night ; 
Oh, our disordered spirits move, 

And let there now be light. 
God, through Himself, we then shall know, 

If Thou within us shine ; 
And sound, with all Thy saints below, 

The depths of love divine." 

" Author of faith, eternal word, 

Whose spirit breathes the active flame ; 
Faith, like its finisher and Lord, 

To-day, as yesterday, the same : 
To Thee our humble hearts aspire, 

And ask the gift unspeakable : 
Increase in us the kindled fire, 

In us the work of faith fulfil. 
The things unknown to feeble sense, 

Unseen by reason's glimmering ray, 
With strong, commanding evidence, 

Their heavenly origin display. 
Faith lends its realizing light, 

The clouds disperse, the shadows fly ; 
The Invisible appears in sight, 

And God is seen by mortal eye." 

" O disclose Thy lovely face, 

Quicken all my drooping powers ; 
Gasps my fainting soul for grace, 
As a thirsty land for showers ; 



9 



130 Wesley's Desig?iated Successor. [1767- 



Haste, my Lord, no more delay ! 

Come, my Saviour, come away ! 
Dark and cheerless is the morn, 

Unaccompanied by Thee ; 
Joyless is the day's return, 

Till Tlry mercy's beams I see ; 
Till Thou inward light impart, 

Glad my eyes and warm my heart. 
Visit, then, this soul of mine, 

Pierce the gloom of sin and grief ; 
Fill me, Radiancy Divine, 

Scatter all my unbelief; 
More and more Thyself display, 

Shining to the perfect day." 

If it be asked, again, what means all this ? let the enquirer 
carefully and devoutly read Fletcher's Six Letters. He will 
be wiser and better for his exercise ; and will ascertain that 
Fletcher and Wesley were not, in the vulgar sense of the 
expression, bewildered and bewildering mystics, but spiritually 
enlightened, sober, scriptural divines, who, with reverential 
and joyous hearts, could sing : — 

" What we have felt and seen, 

With confidence we tell ; 
And publish to the sons of men 

The signs infallible. 
We by His Spirit prove 

And know the things of God, 
The things, which freely of His love 

He hath on us bestow' d. 
His glory our design, 

We live our God to please ; 
And rise, with filial fear divine 

To perfect holiness." 



Age 38.] 



Joseph Easterbrook. 



131 



CHAPTER VII. 

TREVECCA COLLEGE: VISIT TO SWITZER- 
LAND, ETC. 

FROM JANUARY 3, I 768, TO JULY I 770. 

T N Fletcher's letter to Lady Huntingdon, dated Novem- 
i ber 24, 1767, it is intimated that the Countess had 
suggested to Fletcher that a certain " Mr. Eastwood" could 
serve him as his village schoolmaster, and was anxious to do 
so, in order to have the benefit of Fletcher's ministry. There 
can be no doubt that the name "Eastwood" is a mistake, 
and that " Easterbrook" was meant. 

Joseph Easterbrook was a son of the bell-man of Bristol, 
and had been educated at Wesley's Kingswood School. 1 He 
was now about seventeen years of age, and came to reside 
at Madeley. 2 Afterwards he obtained episcopal ordination, 
and became Vicar of the Temple Church, Bristol, and Ordi- 
nary of Newgate Prison in that city. He continued faithful 
to Wesley and to Methodism ; and, it is said, he preached a 
sermon in every house in his large parish. He died in 1791, 
in the fortieth year of his age. This is not the place to give 
further details of his history ; but it is hoped that those 
now related will add to the interest of what Fletcher writes 
concerning him in the following letter to the Countess of 
Huntingdon, in reply to one she had addressed to him 



1 " Unpublished Letter by John Pawson." 

2 Misled by the author of the " Life and Times of the Countess oi 
Huntingdon," I have stated in my " Life and Times of Wesle}^" that 
at the opening of Trevecca College, Easterbrook was appointed to the 
office of master. This is a mistake. The master, as will be seen in 
succeeding pages, was a wonderful child, twelve years old ! Perhaps 
however, Easterbrook rendered some assistance. — L. T. 



132 



Wesley* s Designated Successor, 



[1768. 



respecting suitable books for the students of her intended 
college : — 

"Madeley, January 3, 1768. 

" My LADY, — I thank your ladyship for having - recommended to me 
Easterbrook. I hope he will be the captain of the school, and a great 
help to the master, as well as a spur to the students. He has good 
parts, a most happy memory, and a zeal that would gladden your lady- 
ship's heart. He has preached no less than four times to-day; and 
seems, indeed, in his own element when he is seeking after the lost 
sheep of the house of Israel. He is employed every evening in the work 
of the Lord ; and I give him the more opportunity to exercise his talent, 
as it appears he does it far better than I. I beg two things for him : 
first, that it may hold ; secondly, that he may be kept humble. He 
would at first live upon potatoes and water ; but, finding it may impair 
his health, I have got him to table with me, and shall gladly pay his 
board. He works for me, and the workman is worthy of his hire. 

" Our young collier" (Glazebrook) " seems a little discouraged with 
regard to the hope of his being admitted one of your students. He 
thinks he stands no chance, if all must be qualified as he" (Easter- 
brook) " is. 

"With regard to books, I am in doubt what to write your ladyship. 
Having studied abroad, and used rather foreign than English books 
with my pupils" (Mr. Hill's sons), " I am not well enough acquainted 
with the books Great Britain affords to select the best and most concise. 
Besides, a plan of studies must be fixed upon first, before proper books 
can be chosen. Grammar, logic, rhetoric, ecclesiastical history, and 
a little natural philosophy and geography, with a great deal of practical 
divinity, will be sufficient for those who do not care to dive into lan- 
guages. Mr. Townsend and Charles Wesley might, by spending an 
hour or two together, make a proper choice ; and I would recommend 
them not to forget Watt's 'Logic,' and his 'History of the Bible, by 
Questions and Answers,' which seem to me excellent books of the kind 
for clearness and order. Mr. Wesley's ' Natural Philosophy ' contains 
as much as is wanted, or more. Mason's 'Essay on Pronunciation' 
will be worth their attention. ' Henry and Gill on the Bible,' with the 
four volumes of Baxter's 'Practical Works,' Reach's 'Metaphors,' 
'Taylor on the Types,' Gurnal's 'Christian Armour,' 'Edwards on 
Preaching,' Johnson's English Dictionary, and Mr. Wesley's 'Christian 
Library,' may make part of the little library. The book of Baxter, I 
mention, I shall take care to send to Trevecca, as a mite towards the 
collection, together with Usher's ' Body of Divinity,' Scapula's Oreek 
Lexicon, and Littleton's Latin Dictionary. 

"With regard to those who propose to learn Latin and Greek, the 
master your ladyship will appoint may choose to follow his particular 
method. Mr. Wesley's books, printed for the use of Christian youths, 
seem to me short and proper, and their expense less, which, I suppose, 
should be consulted. Two or three dictionaries of Bailey or Dyke for 



Age 38.] Books to be used at Trevecca College. 133 



those who learn English, with two or three Coles's Dictionaries, Shreve- 
lins's, and Pasor's, for those who will learn Latin and Greek, may be a 
sufficient stock at first. 

"Mr. Edward Stillingfleet 1 is presented, by Mr. Hill, to the living of 
Shawbury, eight miles from Shrewsbury, and twenty from here. I thank 
the Lord for this fellow-helper. 

" I am, your ladyship's unworthy servant, 

" J. Fletcher." 2 

The reader may learn two facts from Fletcher's letter. 
First, what were the books in divinity he most loved and 
prized. It is to be feared that such books are no longer 
popular. In the case of many theological students, they 
have given place to the flimsy and even sceptical productions 
of a later period. The more the pity. No wonder that so 
many pulpits are spiritless, and that so many pews are 
starved. 

Secondly : It is also evident that Fletcher had already 
formed a sort of circuit of preaching places, otherwise a 
youth like Easterbrook could hardly have found the oppor- 
tunity to preach every evening in the week, and four times 
on Sunday. It is now impossible to ascertain what the 
places were ; but Wesley's testimony may here be appro- 
priately introduced. 

" From the beginning, Mr. Fletcher did not confine his labours to his 
own parish. For many years, he regularly preached at places, eight, 
ten, or sixteen miles off, returning the same night, though he seldom 
got home before one or two in the morning. At a little Society which 
he had gathered about six miles from Madeley, he preached two or 
three times a week, beginning at five in the morning." 3 

Of course, all this was ecclesiastically irregular, and a 
repetition of it would not be permitted now ; but, fortunately 
for the people who " sat in darkness," it was, except in a 
few instances, only a peccadillo a hundred years ago, at which 
bishops, priests, and deacons found it a convenience to them- 
selves to wink. 



1 A great-grandson of the celebrated bishop of that name. He proved 
himself to be a faithful friend to Venn, and the other evangelical clergy- 
men of the age. 

2 Methodist Magazine, 1821, p. 437. 

3 Wesley's "Life of Fletcher." 



134 



Wesley s Designated Successor. 



[1768. 



It was at this time that Wesley wrote to Fletcher his 
unusually long and well-known letter on conversation. The 
following are brief extracts from it : — 

" Birmingham, March 20, 1768. 

" Dear Sir, — Mr. Easterbrook told me yesterday that you are sick 
of the conversation even of them who profess religion, — that you find it 
quite unprofitable, if not hurtful, to converse with them three or four 
hours together, and are sometimes almost determined to shut yourself 
up, as the less evil of the two. 

" I do not wonder at it at all, especially considering with whom you 
have chiefly conversed for some time past, namely, the hearers of 
Mr. Madan, or Mr. Bourian, perhaps I might add, of Mr. Whitefield. 
The conversing with these I have rarely found to be profitable to my soul. 
Rather it has damped my designs ; it has cooled my resolutions ; and 
I have consciously left them with a dry, dissipated spirit. 

"Again; you have, for some time, conversed a good deal with the 
genteel Methodists. Now it matters not a straw what doctrine they 
hear, — whether they frequent the Lock or West Street, — they are, almost 
all, salt which has lost its savour, if ever they had any. They are 
thoroughly conformed to the maxims, the spirit, the fashions, and 
customs of the world. 

" But were these or those of ever so excellent a spirit, you conversed 
with them too long. One had need to be an angel, not a man, to con- 
verse three or four hours at once,, to any purpose. 

" But have you not a remedy for all this in your hands ? In order to 
truly profitable conversation, may you not select persons clear of both 
Calvinism and Antinomianism ? not fond of that luscious way of talking, 
but standing in awe of Him they love ; who are vigorously working out 
their salvation, and are athirst for full redemption, and every moment 
expecting it, if not already enjoying it ? " 1 

Apart from the subject of this letter, it is of importance, 
as showing that the maelstrom of the Calvinian controversy 
was already stirring, and that Wesley was afraid of Fletcher 
being drawn into it. This would be much more apparent 
could the letter be quoted here in extenso. Suffice it to 
add, that Fletcher was preserved from the spreading evils, 
and that it is difficult to tell how much he was indebted 
to Wesley's long warning letter for his escape from danger. 

So far as Fletcher was concerned, the great event of the 
year 1768 was the opening of Lady Huntingdon's College 



1 Tyerman's " Life and Times of Wesley," vol. Hi., p. 4. 



Age 38.] 



Letter to Whitefield, 



135 



at Trevecca. Wesley seemed to disapprove of her ladyship's 
design. In a letter to his brother Charles, he wrote : — 

" Edinburgh, May 14, 1768. — I am glad Mr. Fletcher has been with 
you. But, if the tutor fails, what will become of our College at Trevecca ? 
Did you ever see anything more queer than their plan of institution ■? 
Pray, who penned it, man or woman? I am afraid the Visitor" 
(Fletcher) "too will fail." 1 

Meanwhile, however, an occurrence had taken place, which 
appeared to make the opening of Trevecca College increas- 
ingly desirable and important. On the 12 th of March, six 
students belonging to Edmund Hall, Oxford, were expelled 
the University, really and truly on the ground that they 
were charged with being Methodists. The event, as may 
easily be imagined, created a national sensation. Numbers 
of tracts and pamphlets, pro et con, were published ; and, 
among others, one by Whitefield, entitled, " A Letter to the 
Reverend Dr. Durell, Vice-Chancellor of the University of 
Oxford ; occasioned by a late Expulsion of Six Students 
from Edmund Hall." Whitefield's letter was dated April 12, 
1768, exactly a month after the expulsions took place. 
Fletcher read it with approbation, and wrote to Whitefield, 
thanking him for the service he had rendered to the cause of 
truth ; and also referring to a recent visit to Bristol, to the 
Rev. Cradock Glascott, who had supplied for him at Madeley; 
and to the prospect there was of obtaining a suitable master, 
from Suffolk, for the College at Trevecca. Fletcher's letter 
was as follows : — 

" Madeley, May 28, 1768. 

" Reverend and Dear Sir, — I thank you, though late, for the kind 
leave you gave me of trying to pipe where you trumpet the name of our 
dear Redeemer, in Bristol. I ask you, and my hearers there, and, above 
all, our gracious Lord, to pardon me for the wretched manner in which 
I performed, or rather spoiled, the glorious work. 

" I thank you, also, for your letter to the Vice-Chancellor. Mr. 
Talbot 2 treated us with the reading of it at our meeting of the clergy at 
Birmingham ; and I saw applause and satisfaction sitting upon every 
brow. 

"Lady Huntingdon, in a few lines I had lately, mentions that Pro- 



1 Wesley's Works, vol. xii., p. 126. 
No doubt, the Rev. William Talbot, LL.D., Vicar of Kineton, in 
Warwickshire. 



136 Wesley's Designated Successor. [1768. 



vidence raises a master for her school from Suffolk, who promises well. 
She desires he may be secured, if approved of. Perhaps you know him ; 
and you are the best judge whether he is likely to answer. For my 
part, I am willing to put my smoking flax to the tapers of my brethren 
and fathers, when they endeavour to throw some light and order upon 
her ladyship's design ; but I feel my place should be among the 
scholars, rather than among the Directors. 

" Mr. Glascott quitted himself as a faithful and able minister, during 
his stay here. Thousands attended him in the next parish, where he 
nobly took the field. Nevertheless, I see a curse of barrenness upon 
this neighbourhood, which makes me groan for a day of Pentecost. 
God hasten it in His time ! You will please to remember that you are 
a debtor to our barbarians, as well as to the Greeks in London. When 
you come, my pulpit will be honoured, greatly honoured, to hold you, if 
my church cannot hold your congregation." 1 

Who " the master from Suffolk " was, has never yet been 
stated. The matter is of little consequence. In the month 
of July, Wesley visited Fletcher, and, no doubt, they con- 
versed concerning the College at Trevecca ; but Wesley's 
account of his visit is so brief as to be almost significant 
that there was something in their interview that he would 
rather suppress than publish. He simply writes: "1768, 
Sunday, July 31. I preached for Mr. Fletcher in the morn- 
ing; and in the evening at Shrewsbury." 2 Within a month 
after this, the college was opened ; but, instead of being at 
Trevecca, Wesley was in Cornwall 

The opening took place on Wednesday, August 24, the 
anniversary of the birthday of Lady Huntingdon. In all 
likelihood, Fletcher, the president, was present ; but no 
positive evidence of this has been published. Indeed, con- 
sidering the importance of the event, the account of it is 
remarkably brief. The best, in fact, so far as I know, the 
only one ever given to the public, is an extract from 
Whitefield's Memorandum Book, as follows : — 

" August 24, 1768. Opened good Lady Huntingdon's Chapel and 
College, in the parish of Talgarth, Brecknockshire, South ^Wales. 
Preached from Exodus xx. 24 : 'In all places where I record My name, 
I will come unto thee, and I will bless thee.' August 25. — Gave an 
exhortation to the Students, in the College-chapel, from Luke i. 15 : 



1 Fletcher's Works, vol. viii., p. 255. 

2 Wesley's Journal. 



Age 38.] Opening of Trevecca College. 



137 



' He shall be great in the sight of the Lord.' Sunday, August 28. — 
Preached in the court before the College (the congregation consisting 
of some thousands), from 1 Cor. iii. 11 : ' Other foundation can no man 
lay, than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ.' " 1 

To this must be added a single sentence, from a letter 
which Whitefield wrote to Mr. Keene, on August 30 : 
" What we have seen and felt at the College is unspeakable." 2 

That is all. Is there an instance of any other Methodist 
Institution so important as this, the published details of 
whose opening services are so pitiably meagre ? 

It has been said, there is no positive proof that Fletcher 
was at the opening of Trevecca College ; but there is in- 
cidental evidence that he was, and that his friend James 
Ireland, Esq., was with him. This will be found in the 
second of the following letters addressed to Mr. Ireland and 
his dying daughter. 

"Mae>eley, July 30, 1768. 

"My Dear Friend, — Uncertain as I am whether your daughter is 
yet alive, I know not what to say, but this, — our Heavenly Father ap- 
points all things for the best. If her days of suffering are prolonged, 
it is to honour her with a conformity to the crucified Jesus. If they are 
shortened, she will have drunk all her cup of affliction, and found, at 
the bottom of it, not the bitterness of her sins, but the consolations of 
our Saviour's Spirit. 

"I had lately some views of death, and it appeared to me in the 



1 Gillies' "Life of Whitefield." 

2 Trevecca College was supported at the sole expense of the Countess 
of Huntingdon till her death, on June 17, 1 791 . " Had her ability been 
equal to her desire for its continuance, she would have endowed it, and 
thereby have provided for its perpetuity." About four years before her 
decease, and with her full approval, provision was made for the future. 
Seven trustees were appointed to take care of the College after her 
ladyship's death; and a subscription was begun for its maintenance. 
This accumulated fund, in 1791, amounted to ^585, 3 per cent- 
Consols. The lease of the Trevecca property had expired, and it was 
now determined to remove the college to Cheshunt, near London. Ac- 
cordingly, the Trevecca house was given up at Lady-day, 1792; the 
furniture, the library, and the communion plate were taken to Cheshunt, 
where the new establishment was formally opened on August 24, the 
anniversary of the commencement of the abandoned one at Trevecca. 
A religious service, of nearly three hours and a-half's duration, was 
held ; Lady Anne Agnes Erskine, executrix of the Countess of Hunting- 
don, presided ; and seven or eight hundred persons were present. ( ' ' The 
Order observed at the opening of the Countess of Huntingdon's College 
at Cheshunt, London, 1792," 8vo., 86 pp.) 



138 



Wesley s Designated Successor. 



[1768. 



/most brilliant colours. What is it to die, but to open our eyes after 
i the disagreeable dream of life ? It is to break the prison of corruptible 
f flesh and blood, into which sin has cast us. It is to draw aside the 
:i curtain which prevents us seeing the Supreme Beauty and Goodness 
\ face to face. O my dear friend, how lovely is death, when we look at 

it in Jesus Christ ! To die is one of the greatest privileges of the 

Christian. 

" If Miss Ireland is still living, tell her, a thousand times, that Jesus 
is the resurrection and the life ; that He has vanquished and disarmed 
death ; that He has brought life and immortality to light ; and that all 
things are ours, whether life or death, eternity or time. These are 
great truths upon which she ought to repose her soul with full assur- 
ance. Everything is shadow, in comparison of the reality of the Gospel. 
If your daughter be dead, believe in Jesus, and you shall find her again 
in Him, who fills all in all, who encircles the material and spiritual 
world in His arms — in the immense bosom of His Divinity. 

"Adieu, my dear friend. Yours, 

"J. Fletcher." 1 

"Mapeley, October 14, 1768. 

"My Very Dear Friend, — I think I told you at Trevecca, 2 that 
we had no farmers at Madeley who feared God and loved Jesus. This 
generation among us are buried in the furrows of their ploughs, or 
under the heaps of corn which fill their granaries. Now that I am on 
the spot, I do not see one who makes it necessary for me to change 
my opinion. Your bailiff cannot come from this Nazareth. 

'-' If the last efforts of the physicians fail with respect to Miss Ireland, 
■it will be a consolation to you to know that they have been tried. Every 
thing dies. Things visible are all transitory ; but invisible ones abide 
for ever. If Christ is our life and our resurrection, it is of little import- 
ance whether we die now, or thirty years hence. 

"Present my respects to your son, and tell him, that last week I 
buried three young persons who had died of a malignant fever ; and 
who, on the second day of their illness, were deprived of their speech 
and senses, and, on the fifth, of their lives. Of what avail are youth 
and vigour when the Lord lifts His finger ? And shall we sin against 
the eternal power, the infinite love, the inexorable justice, and the 
immense goodness of this God, who gives us, from moment to moment, 
the breath which is in our nostrils ? No — we will employ the precious 
gift in praising and blessing this good God,, who is our Father in Jesus 
Christ. 

" I hope you learn, as well as I, and better than I, to know Jesus in 
the Spirit. I have known Him after the flesh, and after the letter ; 
I strive to know Him in the power of His Spirit. Under the Divine 



1 Letters, 1791, p. 198. 

2 In all probability at the opening of the College on August 24. 



Age 39.] Letters to Mr. Ireland and his Daughter. 139 



character of a quickening Spirit, He is everywhere. All that live, live 
in Him, and they who are spiritually alive have a double life. The 
Lord give us this second life more abundantly. Yours, 



The next is an extract from a long letter, addressed to 
dying Miss Ireland. 



" My Dear Afflicted Friend, — I hear you are returned from the 
last journey you took in search of health. Your Heavenly Father sees 
fit to deny it you, not because He hateth you {for whom the Lord 
loveth He chasteneth), but because life and health might be fatal snares 
to your soul, out of which you could not escape, but by tedious illness, 
and an early death. 

" Your father has crossed the sea for you ; Jesus has done more. He 
has crossed the abyss that lies between heaven and earth — between the 
Creator and the creature. He has waded through the sea of His tears, 
blood, and agonies, not to take you to the physician at Montpelier, but 
to become your physician and Saviour Himself. Oh, my friend, delay 
not cheerfully to surrender yourself to Him. Look not at your sins 
without beholding His blood and righteousness. Eye not death but to 
behold your gracious Saviour, saying, ' Fear not, O thou of littte faith: 
wherefore dost thou doubt ? ' Consider not eternity but as the palace 
where you are going to enter with the Bridegroom of souls,, and rest 
from all your sins and miseries. View not the condemning law of God 
but as made honourable by Him, who was made a curse for you. If 
you have no comfort, distrust not Jesus on that account ; on the con- 
trary, take advantage from it to give greater glory to God, by believing, 
as Abraham did, ' in hope against hope.' In this simple, Gospel way, 
wait the Lord's leisure, and He will comfort your heart. 

" I hope you take care to have little or nothing else mentioned to you 
but His praises and promises. Your tongue and ears are going to be 
silent in the grave. Now, or never, you must use them to hear and 
speak good of His name. Comfort your weeping friends. Reprove the 
backsliders. Encourage seekers. Remember the praying, believing, 
preaching, though dying thief. Be not afraid to drop a word for Him 
who opens a fountain of blood for you. Suffer, live, die at His feet; 
and you will soon revive, sing, and reign in His bosom for evermore. 
Farewell, in the Conqueror of Death and Prince of Life. 



Within three months after the date of this letter, Miss 
Ireland had left a world of sin and suffering, and had entered 




"J. Fletcher. 



"Madeley, December 5, 1768. 



"J. Fletcher. 



1 Letters, 1791, p. 199. 

2 Ibid, 1 791 , p. 204. 



140 Wesley's Designated Successor, [1769. 



into that rest which remains for the people of God. 1 Hence 
the following, addressed to her father : — 

" Madeley, March 26, 1769. 

"My Dear Friend, — The Lord is desirous of making you a true 
disciple of His dear Son, the 1 Man of Sorrows; by sending you 
affliction upon affliction. A sister and a wife who appear to hasten to 
the grave in which you have so lately laid your only daughter, places 
you in circumstances of uncommon sorrow. But in this see the finger 
of Him who works all in all, and who commands us to forsake all to 
follow Him. Believe in Him. Believe that He does all for the best; 
and that all shall work for good to those who love Him. His goodness 
to your daughter ought to encourage your faith and confidence for Mrs. 
Ireland. Offer her upon the altar, and you shall see that, if it be best 
for her and you, His grace will suspend the blow which threatens you. 

" Your rich present of meal came last week, and shall be distributed 
to the pious poor agreeably to your orders. We are happy to receive 
your bounty, but you are more happy in bestowing it upon us. Witness 
the words "of Jesus, ' It is more blessed to give than to receive.' Never- 
theless, receive, by faith, the presents of the Lord, the gifts of His Spirit, 
and reject not the bread which cometh down from heaven, because the 
Lord gives it you with so much love. 

"I shall be obliged to go to Switzerland this year or the next, if I 
live and the Lord permits. I have there a brother, a worthy man, who 
threatens to leave his wife and children to come and pay me a visit if I 
do not go and see him myself. It is some time since our gracious God 
convinced him of sin, and I have some of his letters which give me great 
pleasure. This circumstance has more weight with me than the settle- 
ment of my affairs." 2 

Mr. Ireland was a frequent benefactor to Fletcher and the 
poor of Madeley. Hence, in another letter to the same 
friend in need, Fletcher wrote : — 

" I think I wrote my last letter two days before I received your bounty 
— a large hogshead of rice and two cheeses. Accept the thanks of your 
poor and mine. I distributed your gifts on Shrove Tuesday ; and 
preached to a numerous congregation on ' Seek ye first the kingdom of 
God and His righteousness, and all other things shall be added unto 
you.' We prayed for our benefactor, that God would give him a 
hundredfold in this life, and eternal life, where life eternal will be no 
burden." 3 



1 Letters, 1791, p. 205. 

2 Ibid, p. 206. 

3 Benson's " Life of Fletcher." 



Age 39.] 



Rev, John Jones. 



Help, like Mr. Ireland's, was always welcome. Many of 
Fletcher's parishioners were extremely poor, and to the 
utmost of his ability he contributed to their necessities. One 
who knew him writes : — 

" The profusion of his charity toward the poor and needy is scarcely 
credible. It constantly exhausted his purse ; it frequently unfurnished 
his home ; and sometimes left him destitute of the common necessaries 
of life. That he might feed the hungry, he led a life of abstinence and 
self-denial ; and that he might cover the naked, he clothed himself in 
the most homely attire." 1 

Fletcher was President, or, as Wesley chose to call him 
more correctly, Visitor of Trevecca College. The office 
brought upon him considerable anxiety and labour. In 
the summer of 1769, John Jones made application to be 
appointed head master. Mr. Jones, from 1746 to 1767, had 
been one of Wesley's itinerant preachers. He was one of 
the first classical masters of Kingswood School, and wrote 
the Latin Grammar which was used in that academy. 2 He 
was highly esteemed by Wesley, and after he left Kings- 
wood was generally stationed in Wesley's two most important 
circuits, London and Bristol. In 1754, when there was 
great excitement respecting a possible separation of the 
Methodists from the Church of England, Charles Wesley 
wished what he called " the sound preachers " to be "qualified 
for orders," and wrote to his brother, saying, " I know none 
fitter for training up the young men in learning than your- 
self or J. Jones." Nine years after this, when Erasmus, a 
bishop of the Greek Church, visited London, he, at Wesley's 
request, ordained Jones to assist the Arch-Methodist in 
administering the sacraments to his Societies. Charles 
Wesley would not admit the validity of this ordination, and 
consequently would not allow Mr. Jones to officiate as a 
clergyman. This was a severe trial to the newly-ordained 
preacher, and led him to leave the Methodists. He after- 
wards procured ordination from the Bishop of London, and 
was presented to the living of Harwich, where he continued 



1 Benson's " Life of Fletcher." 

2 Myles's " Chronological History of the Methodists." 



142 



Wesley's Designated Successor. 



[1769. 



to preach for many years, and where he ended his days in 
peace. 1 He never lost his love for Wesley. In 1775, when 
Wesley was dangerously ill in Ireland, he wrote to him from 
Harwich : — 

" I cannot express what I felt when I was informed you were both 
senseless and speechless ; and it was like life from the dead when I 
heard you were out of danger and able to sit up. Time was when you 
would have taken my advice, at least in some things. Let me entreat, 
let me beseech you, to preach less frequently, and that only at the 
principal places," etc. 3 

Such was John Jones, Wesley's friend, and at one time 
held in high esteem by Wesley's brother Charles. His 
ambition to be employed in Lady Huntingdon's college at 
Trevecca was not inordinate. Fifteen years before, Charles 
Wesley had thought him qualified to train young men for 
the ministry, and from one of his letters, written in 1777, 
and published in the Wesley an Methodist Magazine for 1837, 
it is evident that Charles Wesley's opinion was well founded. 
The letter was addressed to a gentleman of Magdalene 
College, Cambridge, who was about to be ordained, and 
wished Mr. Jones's advice respecting the composition of 
sermons and preaching them. 

" Prayer," said he, " should always precede the composing of a dis- 
course. In general, the explication of the text or context, if they need 
it, should not be too short. The propositions or doctrines should not be 
too long nor too many, and the clearer they are the better. The illus- 
trations should be proper and lively ; the proofs close and home ; the 
motives strong and cogent; the inferences and application natural, and 
not laboured. For if we cannot persuade the passions, we shall go but 
a little way with most of our hearers. This was George Whitefield's 
peculiar talent ; but I do not mean to persuade you to bawl as loud as 
he did, and yet I would advise you to raise your voice in the application 
of your discourse. Eight-and-thirty years ago I thought it an easy 
matter to prove most points in divinity. I have been learning the con- 
trary ever since, and I find it now very difficult, by Scriptures properly 
understood and applied, to prove many things which I once thought 
quite clear. I find it necessary to understand the Scripture I bring in 
as a proof before I use it as such. I will add one thing more. You 



1 Atmore's " Methodist Memorial." 

2 Arminian Magazine, 1787, p. 444. 



age 39.] Fletcher's Letter to Rev. John Jones. 143 



will find it very difficult to use such plain language as will be under- 
stood in most congregations. Avoid long periods as much as possible. 
Imitate Caesar rather than Cicero ; leave the latter to Dr. Middleton 
and Samuel Furley. It is far better to be understood by our hearers 
than to be admired by getting out of their depth. To do all the good 
we can is our one business in life." 

Mr. Jones was a man of sense, and piety, and experience ; 
and yet Fletcher hesitated in recommending him to be 
appointed a tutor in Trevecca College. Did Fletcher sym- 
pathize with his friend Charles Wesley in the repugnance 
which the latter felt to Mr. Jones's ordination by Erasmus, 
the bishop of the Greek Church ? Perhaps so ; at all events, 
the following letter to the Countess of Huntingdon was 
cautious, if not cold : — 

"Madeley, July 1, 1769. 

" My Lady, — Mr. Jones's letter puzzled me a little. I did not know 
what answer to make to it. I have, however, sat down, and, after an 
introduction, I say to him — 

" ' The first and grand point to be kept in view at Lady Huntingdon's 
College is to maintain and grow in the spirit of faith and power that 
breathes through the Acts of the Apostles, and was exemplified in the 
lives of the primitive Christians. The first and grand qualification 
required in a person called to be at the head of such a college is, then, 
a degree of faith and power from above, with an entire devotedness to 
God and His cause. 

" 'The master, who is there at present, seems, on account of his youth, 
to be deficient in point of experience. Nor is he a proper master of the 
Greek, nor even of the harder classics ; so that he can hardly maintain 
his superiority over those who read Cicero and Horace. Whether this 
inconveniency, Sir, would be avoided, supposing you were appointed to 
succeed him, I cannot judge by your letter. He is also unacquainted 
with divinity and the sciences, of which it is proper he should give the 
students some idea ; and how far you may excel him in these points, 
Sir, is not in my power to determine. He has twenty-five guineas a 
year, with his board, room, and washing. I dare say the generous ~ 
foundress, would not hesitate to raise the salary of a master of superior 
merit, though she hopes none would undertake that office for the sake 
of money.' 

" After giving Mr. Jones a little account of the business of the College, 
I add— 

" 'The variety of classes in it demands great assiduity and diligence 
in the master. I would not, therefore, advise anyone to engage without 
a proper trial. I have begged of Lady Huntingdon not to fix upon a 
master till she had allowed him to look about him, and see how he liked 
the place, people, and business ; and, as you very properly observe, 



J44 



Wesley's Designated Successor. 



[1769. 



Sir, it would be improper to engage, and then to recent of the under- 
taking. I think that, if, upon consulting with the Lord in prayer, and 
with Mr. Maxfield in conversation, you find your heart free to embrace 
so peculiar an opportunity of being useful to your generation, it might 
be best to come and see how you like the business, and how it agrees 
with you ; and should not matters prove agreeable on either side, I dare 
say Lady Huntingdon will pay your travelling expenses to Talgarth, 1 
and back again.' 

"In a letter to Mr. Maxfield, 2 I desired him to inform your ladyship 
how Mr. Jones's mind stands after reflecting on the contents of my 
letter to him, and whether he would go to make a trial. I add, that so 
much depends upon the aptness to teach, Christian experience, solidity, 
liveliness, and devotedness of a master, that no one can presume to 
judge of these things by a letter, or even by a day's conversation. 

" If your ladyship does not approve of this step, a line to Mr. Maxfield 
will rectify what you think amiss, and will oblige, my lady, your unworthy 
servant, 

"J. Fletcher. 

" P.S. — If your ladyship is so good as to spare a minister for three 
weeks, I shall be glad to wait upon the dear young men and their 
patroness at the College." 3 

This is an important letter, not only as exhibiting the 
views of Fletcher, but as containing a curious chapter in the 
earliest history of Trevecca College. The College, as it was 
ostentatiously called, had been opened ten months. It had 
one master ; and the author of the " Life and Times of the 
Countess of Huntingdon" says Joseph Easterbrook was the 
person who occupied this position ; but adduces no proof in 
support of his assertion. Another, and a far greater autho- 
rity, attests that the master of the College was a child. 
Who was he ? 

In 1788, there was printed "A Sermon, occasioned by the 
Death of the celebrated Mr. J. Henderson, B.A., of Pembroke 
College, Oxford : Preached at St. George's, Kingswood, 
November 23 ; and at Temple Church, Bristol, Novem- 
ber 30, 1788. By the Rev. William Agutter, M.A., of 



1 Trevecca College was in the parish of Talgarth, South Wales. It 
was supposed to be part of an old castle erected in the reign of Henry 
the Second. The date over the entrance was 11 76. 

2 Thomas Maxfield, who had seceded from Wesley's Connexion in 
1763, and had received episcopal ordination from the Bishop of Derry. 

3 " Life and Times of the Countess of Huntingdon," vol. ii., p. 98. 



Age 39-1 Mr. John Henderson^ B.A. 145 



St. Mary Magdalen College, Oxford. Published at the 
request of the Congregations. Bristol. 1788." 8vo, pp. 32. 
The text of the sermon is, " Moses was learned in all the 
wisdom of the Egyptians." Mr. Agutter's eulogy of Hen- 
derson cannot here be quoted at full length : the following 
are brief extracts from it : — 

"Mr. Henderson was born, as it were, a thinking being; and was 
never known to cry, or to express any infantine peevishness. The ques- 
tions he asked, as soon as he was able to speak, astonished all who 
heard him." 

" His memory was so strong that he retained all he read; and his 
judgment so solid that he arranged, examined, and digested all that he 
remembered, and thus made it his own." 

"At a time that other children were employed in the drudgery of 
learning words, he was occupied in obtaining the knowledge of things. 
While but a boy, he was e?igaged to teach the learned languages. 
At twelve years of age, he taught Greek and Latin in the College of 
Trevecca. The Governor of the College at that time was the Rev. 
Mr. Fletcher, late Vicar of Made ley." 1 

Mr. Agutter proceeds to say, that, when Fletcher was 
dismissed from Trevecca, Henderson was dismissed with 
him. 

This, then, was the master — the only master of Trevecca 
College during the first year of its existence — a child, a 
wonderful child, twelve years old ! A further account of 
this prodigy, or, as the Monthly Review, of 1789, called him, 
" a second Baratier," 2 may interest the reader. 

His father was a native of Ireland, and, from 1759 to 
1 77 1, was one of Wesley's best itinerant preachers, — a man 
of deep piety, great talent, and amiable disposition ; but 
naturally of a timid and melancholy mind. On relinquishing 



1 The Arminian Magazine, for 1793, confirms this statement. 

2 Baratier was a German, born in 172 1, and is said to have understood 
the German, French, Greek, and Latin languages when he was five 
years old. At the age of nine, he could not only translate the Hebrew 
Scriptures into Latin or French, but also re-translate these versions into 
Hebrew. Before he had completed his tenth year, he composed a 
Hebrew Lexicon of rare and difficult words, with curious critical remarks. 
In his thirteenth year he translated from the Hebrew "Rabbi Benjamin's 
Travels in Europe, Asia, and Africa," and published them in two volumes, 
" with historical and critical notes and dissertations." He also, with 
remarkable success, applied himself to the study of philosophy, mathe- 
matics, ecclesiastical history, law, etc. He died in his twentieth year. 



10 



146 Wesley s Designated Successor. 



[1769. 



the itinerancy, he commenced a boarding-school at Hannam, 
near Bristol ; but two of his pupils having been drowned 
while bathing, his mind was so affected, that he abandoned 
his school, and opened, at the same place, an asylum for the 
insane, which Wesley pronounced the best of the kind in the 
three kingdoms. 

John Henderson, his only child, was born at Bellgaran, 
near Limerick, in 1757, and, as early as possible, was sent 
to. Wesley's School, at Kingswood. At the age of eight, he 
had made such proficiency in the Latin language, as to be 
able to teach it in the school. In his twelfth year, as already 
stated, he became the Master in Trevecca College. When 
about fourteen years of age, he left Trevecca, and, probably, 
spent the next ten years with his father at Hannam. At 
twenty-four, he entered Pembroke College, Oxford ; and, in 
due time, took the degree of Bachelor of Arts. His thirst 
after knowledge was unbounded ; and his amiable temper 
and remarkable talents secured him the respect of all who 
knew him. His learning was deep and multifarious. He 
was skilled in grammar, rhetoric, history, logic, ethics, meta- 
physics, and scholastic theology. He studied medicine with 
great attention, and practised it among the poor, wherever 
he had a chance, gratuitously. He was well versed in 
geometry, astronomy, and every branch of natural and expe- 
rimental philosophy, and also in civil and canon laws. 
Besides several of the modern languages, he was master of 
the Greek and Latin tongues ; and was intimately acquainted 
with Persic and Arabic. Scarcely a book could be mentioned, 
but he could give some account of it; nor any subject started, 
but he could engage in the discussion of it. His talents for 
conversation were so attractive, various, and multiform, that 
he was a companion equally acceptable to the philosopher 
and the man of the world, to the gay, the learned, and 
illiterate, the young and the old of both sexes. He .attracted 
the notice of Dr. Johnson, was intimate with Sir William 
Jones, Miss Hannah More, and other celebrities ; and Mr. 
Wilberforce offered him his patronage and a living, if he 
would reside in London. 

Like most geniuses, John Henderson was eccentric. When 
he first went to Oxford, his clothes were made in a fashion 



Age 39-1 Mr. John Henderson , B.A. 



147 



peculiar to himself; he had no stock or neckcloth ; and he 
wore his hair like that of a boy aTscTiool. His mode of life 
was singular. He generally went to bed at daybreak, and 
rose in the afternoon, except when he was obliged to attend 
the morning service of the college chapel Before he retired 
to rest, he frequently stripped himself naked to the waist, 
took his station at a pump near his rooms, sluiced his head 
and the upper part of his body, pumped water over his shirt, 
and then, putting it on, went to bed. This he jocularly 
called " an excellent cold bath." He became an ardent 
admirer of the nonsense of Jacob Behmen's wild philosophical 
divinity ; studied Lavater's " Physiognomy ;" and attained 
to a considerable knowledge of magic and astrology ; and 
declared the possibility of holding correspondence with the 
spirits of the dead, upon the strength of his own experience. 

He died at Oxford, on November 2, 1788, and was buried 
at St. George's, Kingswood. His father was so painfully 
affected by the loss of his affectionate and only child, that 
he caused the corpse to be taken up again, several days after 
the interment, to satisfy himself that his son was really dead. 1 

Wesley had great love and respect for poor Henderson's 
father, and, a few months after the young man's untimely 
death, he wrote : — 

" 1789, March 13. — I spent some time with poor Richard Henderson, 
deeply affected with the loss of his only son ; who, with as great talents 
as most men in England, had lived two-and-thirty years, and done just 
nothing." 2 

This, however, was scarcely true. Henry Moore, in his 
" Life of Wesley," 3 relates an anecdote which is worth pre- 
serving, and which must conclude this lengthened notice of 
the child professor at the Countess of Huntingdon's College 
at Trevecca. In reference to Wesley's entry in his Journal, 
Mr. Moore remarks : — 

"Not a vestige of Mr. Henderson's writings remains. This is 
owing to what some would call a cross providence. He used to visit 
his father at Hannam, near Bristol, in the summer vacation. He 



1 Arminian Magazine, 1793, pp. 140 — 144. 

2 Wesley's Journal. 

3 Vol. ii., p. 360. 



Wesley' } s Designated Successor. 



[176-c. 



there studied intensely, and wrote largely. His MSS. he stored in a 
large trunk without a lock. Returning home, some time before his 
last illness, he flew to his treasure, but found the trunk empty. He 
enquired of Mrs. Henderson, who called up the servant, and asked 
for the papers in the trunk. The girl, who had been hired that year, 
replied with great simplicity, 'La! ma'am, I thought they were good 
for nothing, and so I lighted the fire with them during the winter.' 
Mr. Henderson looked at his excellent mother-in-law for some time, 
but spoke not a word. He then went into his study, and was never 
known to mention the subject more." 

" Oh ! Diamond, Diamond ! thou little knowest the 
mischief thou hast done ! " said Sir Isaac Newton to his 
favourite little dog, who, by upsetting a taper on his desk, 
had set fire to the papers which contained the whole of 
his unpublished experiments, and thus reduced to ashes 
the labours of many years. Poor Henderson, in his mis- 
fortune, " spoke not a word." Newton lived thirty years 
after his great loss, but made no important addition to 
his scientific discoveries ; Henderson died soon after his 
sad calamity ; and hence Wesley's disparaging remark con- 
cerning him : " With as great talents as most men in England, 
he lived two-and-thirty years, and did just nothing." Wesley 
must have been ignorant of the fact related by Mr. Moore ; 
for, on no other ground can an apology be framed for his 
unfair remark. 

It is time to return to Fletcher. Wesley was not present 
at the opening of Trevecca College, in 1768, but he took 
part in the religious services held at the first anniversary 
in 1769. Whitefield was unavoidably absent, for he was 
preaching farewell sermons, and administering farewell sacra- 
ments, to his London congregations, and, a week afterwards, 
set out on his final visit to America. But, even without 
him, the Methodist gathering at Trevecca was one of the 
most remarkable recorded in old Methodist history. Besides 
Wesley and Fletcher, there were present Howell Harris, the 
founder of the Welsh Methodists ; the Rev. Daniel Rowlands, 
rector of Llangeitho, with a salary of ;£io a year, a preacher 
whose eloquence was overwhelming, and whose meetings 
among the Welsh mountains can never be forgotten ; the 
Rev. William Williams, curate of Lanwithid, a brave-hearted 
man who had m*et violent persecution without flinching, and 



Age 39.] First Anniversary of Trevecca College. 149 



a member of the first Conference of the Calvinistic Methodists 
in Wales, in 1743 ; Howell Davies, rector of Prengast, an 
intimate friend of Whitefield, a preacher whom thousands upon 
thousands flocked to hear, in fields, and on commons and 
mountains, and the attendance at whose monthly sacraments 
was so great that his church had to be emptied several times 
over to make room for the remaining communicants waiting 
out of doors ; the Rev. Peter Williams, another itinerant 
clergyman of the Established Church, who joined the 
Methodists as early as the year 174.1 ; and the Hon. and 
Rev. Walter Shirley, brother of the notorious Earl Ferrers, 
first cousin of the Countess of Huntingdon, converted under 
the ministry of Venn, and now an earnest minister of Christ; 
to whom must be added Lady Huntingdon, the Countess of 
Buchan, Lady Anne Erskine, and Miss Orton, and also the 
first students of Trevecca, headed by their juvenile master, 
John Henderson. 

The services were held daily for a whole week, from the 
19th to the 25 th of August inclusive. Fletcher, Rowlands, 
and William Williams arrived at the College on Friday, 
the 1 8th, and next morning Rowlands preached in the 
chapel to a crowded congregation, from the words, " Lord, 
are there few that be saved ? " In the afternoon, the Lord's 
Supper was administered,. Fletcher addressing the com- 
municants and spectators, and Williams giving out a hymn, 
which was sung with great enthusiasm. At night, Howell 
Harris preached to a large congregation assembled in the 
court from the text, "The time is come that judgment must 
begin at the house of God." During the day, Walter Shirley 
and several lay preachers arrived at Trevecca. 

On Sunday, August 20, at ten in the morning, Fletcher 
read the Liturgy in the court, and Shirley preached on, 
" Acquaint thyself now with Him, and be at peace." At 
one, the Lord's Supper was administered in the chapel, 
and Rowlands, Fletcher, and Williams gave addresses. 
During the afternoon, Fletcher preached in the court to 
an immense congregation, from, " I am not ashamed of the 
Gospel of Christ." When his sermon was ended, Rowlands, 
in the Welsh language, addressed the crowd from, " It is 
appointed unto men once to die." 



150 Wesley's Designated Successor. [1769- 



On Monday and Tuesday the clergymen preached, and 
Howell Harris and several of the lay preachers joined in 
the services. 

On Wednesday, August 23rd, Wesley came, accompanied 
by Howell Davies and Peter Williams. 1 Wesley writes : — 

"Wednesday, August 23rd. I went on to Trevecca. Here we 
found a concourse of people from all parts, come to celebrate the 
Countess of Huntingdon's birthday, and the anniversary of her school, 
which was opened on the twenty-fourth of August, last year. I 
preached in the evening to as many as her chapel could well contain ; 
which is extremely neat, or rather, elegant ; as is the dining-room, 
the school, and all the house. About nine, Howell Harris desired 
me to give a short exhortation to his family. I did so ; and then went 
back to my lady's, and laid me down in peace. 

"Thursday, August 24th. I administered the Lord's Supper to 
the family. 2 At ten, the public service began. Mr. Fletcher preached 
an exceeding lively sermon in the court, the chapel being far too 
small. After him, Mr. William Williams preached in Welsh till 
between one and two o'clock. At two we dined. Meantime, a large 
number of people had baskets of bread and meat carried to them in 
the court. At three, I took my turn there ; then Mr. Fletcher ; and 
about five, the congregation was dismissed. Between seven and eight, 
the lovefeast began, at which, I believe, many were comforted. In 
the evening, several of us retired into the neighbouring wood, which 
is exceeding pleasantly laid out in walks, one of which leads to a little 
mount raised in the midst of a meadow that commands a delightful 
prospect. This is Howell Harris's work, who has likewise greatly 
enlarged and beautified his house ; so that, with the gardens, orchards, 
walks, and pieces of water that surround it, it is a kind of little 
paradise." 3 

This is not the place to enlarge upon Howell Harris's 
establishment, which adjoined Trevecca College. Suffice it 
to say, that here he had gathered together a family of more 
than a hundred persons, " all diligent, all constantly employed, 
all fearing God and working righteousness." 4 



1 "Life and Times of the Countess of Huntingdon," vol. ii., 
pp. 98, 99. 

2 The author of the " Life and Times of the Countess of Huntingdon " 
says, " Shirley assisted Wesley," and adds, "The sacrament was first 
administered to the clergyman, then to the students, and then to Lady 
Huntingdon, the Countess of Buchan, Lady Anne Erskine, Miss Orton, 
and the other members of the family." 

3 Wesley's Journal. 

4 Ibid. 



Age 39.] 



Rev. Walter Sellon. 



The lovefeast mentioned by Wesley was the concluding 
service on the first anniversary day, strictly speaking, of 
Trevecca College. At that lovefeast, Walter Shirley, Howell 
Davies, and Daniel Rowlands gave short exhortations, and 
Peter Williams and Howell Harris offered prayers. Lady 
Huntingdon observes : — 

"Truly our God was in the midst of us, and many felt Him eminently 
nigh. The gracious influence of His Spirit seemed to rest on every 
one. Words fail to describe the holy triumph with which the great 
congregation sang — 

" ' Captain of Thine enlisted host, 

Display thy glorious banner high,' etc. 

It was a season of refreshing from the presence of the Lord — a time 
never to be forgotten." 

Next morning, Wesley set off for Bristol ; but the services 
were continued. In the afternoon, Shirley took his stand 
on the scaffold in the court, and addressed the multitude from 
the words, " Wherefore He is able also to save them to the 
uttermost that come unto God by Him, seeing He ever liveth 
to make intercession for them." 

"From that time," wrote Lady Huntingdon, "we had public 
preaching every day at four o'clock, whilst Mr. Shirle3 T and Mr. 
Fletcher remained. Copious showers of Divine blessing have been 
felt on ever}' side. Truly God is good to Israel. Continue Thy good- 
ness, and in much greater abundance ! O that I may be more and 
more useful to the souls of my fellow-creatures ! I want to be, every 
moment, all life, all zeal, all activity for God, and ever on the stretch 
for closer communion with Him. My soul pants to live more to Him; 
and to be more holy in heart and life, that all my nature may show the 
glories of the Lamb." 1 

Alas ! that these glorious scenes among the Welsh moun- 
tains should so soon be followed by scenes of discord and 
of disputes. The great storm of the Calvinian controversy 
was already brewing. 

Walter Sellon occupies a rather unique position in Me- 
thodistic annals. He died in 1792, at the age of seventy- 
seven ; and yet of the first thirty, and the last twenty-two 



1 "Life and Times of the Countess of Huntingdon," vol. ii., pp. 
98 — 101. 



152 Wesley* s Designated Successor. [1769. 



years of his life, hardly anything is known. Dr. Abel 
Stevens, in his " History of Methodism," says Sellon was 
originally a baker ; but I know of no authority for this, 
except Toplady's, whose hatred and abuse of Sellon were 
such as to justify a hesitancy in believing a statement con- 
cerning his stout antagonist, which he intended to be 
injurious to his fame. Sellon was born in the year 171 5 ; 
but up to the year 1745 he had not been introduced to 
Wesley. In a letter to Wesley, dated December 31, 1744, 
he states, that, until recently, he had condemned him as " an 
innovator," and had " pitied those who followed " him. But, 
having heard Wesley preach, and having read his sermon 
on " Scriptural Christianity," delivered before the Oxford 
University on August 24, 1744, his opinions concerning 
him and his followers were entirely changed ; and he now 
requested Wesley, when he had an opportunity, to preach 
at Maidenhead, "where drunkenness, adultery, profaneness, 
gaming, and almost every abominable vice, were not only 
committed with greediness, but gloried in, and boasted of." 1 
Whether Wesley went to Maidenhead, which seems to have 
been Sellon's place of residence, is not known ; but, three 
years and a half afterwards, when he opened his famous 
Kingswood School, Walter Sellon was appointed the Head- 
master "for the Classics." 2 About the year 1754, Sellon 
received episcopal ordination, and became curate of the 
churches of Smisby, near Ashby-de-la-Zouch, and of Breedon, 
where vast multitudes flocked to hear him, " not only from 
adjacent towns and villages, but frequently from places ten, 
fifteen, and twenty miles distant." " He was a real Metho- 
dist," wrote Jonathan Edmondson, " and hundreds were 
turned to God through his instrumentality." 3 Sellon enjoyed 
the confidential friendship of Wesley, and especially of 
Wesley's brother Charles ; and, about the time of his ap- 
pointment to his curacies, stood faithfully by them in their 
contentions with the most able and prominent of their 
itinerant preachers, concerning the separation of the Metho- 



1 Arminian Magazine, 1778, p. 327. 

2 Myles' "Chronological History of the Methodists." 

3 Wesley a?i Methodist Magazine, 1856, p. 38. 



Age 39.] 



Fletcher and Sellon. 



153 



dists from the Established Church. All his publications 
were controversial ; and all, except his first, were written 
specially in defence of the anti-Calvinian doctrines Wesley 
taught. This is not the place to review Walter Sellon as 
an author. Suffice it to say, that he was always powerful, 
rather than polite ; and that, after his first publication, in 
1765, which was levelled at Socinianism, he prepared a 
second in 1768, which was entitled, "Arguments against the 
Doctrine of General Redemption considered." Without 
noticing, at present, the subsequent writings of Sellon, it is 
enough to add, that, about the year 1770, he was presented 
by the Earl of Huntingdon to the Vicarage of Ledsham, 
in Yorkshire, where he lived and laboured until his death, 
on June 13, 1792. 1 In an unpublished manuscript, John 
Pawson says : — 

" I do not believe Mr. Sellon was made the instrument of awakening 
a single soul after he came to Ledsham. He was tutor to young Mr. 
Medhurst, of Kippax, who lately murdered his wife, and would have 
murdered his mother some years ago, if my brother Tarboton had not 
rescued her at the hazard of his own life. While in that family, Mr. 
Sellon seemed to lose all spirit and life, and, as far as I could learn, 
had very little savour of godliness about him. He took not the least 
notice of the Methodists, no more than if he had never known them." 

John Pawson was one of Wesley's most honest and hard- 
working itinerants ; but he sometimes was more severe in 
his strictures than was desirable. His remark, however, 
concerning Sellon's abandonment of the Methodists was 
probably correct; for Wesley, in a letter dated June 10, 
1784, wrote to him : "You used to meet me when I came 
near you ; but you seem, of late, to have forgotten your old 
friend and brother." 2 

To return to Fletcher. He and Sellon were well known 
to each other. Four years ago, they had exchanged pulpits 
for a season, Sellon preaching at Madeley, and Fletcher at 
Smisby and Breedon-on-the-Hill. Now Sellon was entering 
the arena of controversy. The expulsion of the Methodist 
students from Oxford University, in 1768, had been the 



1 Wesley an Methodist Magazine, 1856, p. 41. 

2 Wesley's Works, vol. xiii., p. 43. 



154 



Wesley's Designated Successor. 



[1769. 



means, incidentally, of bringing some of the chief doctrines 
of Calvinism into public notice. Sir Richard Hill, in de- 
fending the students, had warmly advocated Calvinistic 
predestination. Dr. Nowell, in answering Sir Richard, had 
clearly shown that this predestination was not the doctrine 
of the Church of England. Toplady had rushed to the 
rescue of his favourite dogma, and had published his trans- 
lation of " Zauchius," and also his " Letter to Dr. Nowell." 
Sellon was the first of Wesley's friends who entered the 
lists, by preparing and publishing his " Arguments against 
the Doctrine of General Redemption considered. London, 
1769." i2mo. 178 pp. Wesley encouraged him, and so 
did Fletcher. The former wrote as follows : — 

"Wakefield, July 9, 1768. 
' ' My Dear BROTHER, — I am glad you have undertaken the ' Re- 
demption Redeemed;' but you must in no wise forget Dr. Owen's 
answer to it : otherwise you will leave a loop-hole for all the Calvinists 
to creep out. The Doctor's evasions you must needs cut in pieces, 
either interweaving your answers with the body of the work, under each 
head, or adding them in marginal notes. 

" Your ever affectionate brother, 

"J. Wesley." 1 

After the book was published, Fletcher wrote to Sellon 
the following letter, plainly showing that the great Calvinian 
controversy, though as yet in its incipient state, was causing 
considerable commotion : — 

" Madeley, October 7, 1769. 
' ' My Dear Brother, — I thank you for your letter and books. They 
came safe to hand, and I shall give you the amount at the first oppor- 
tunity. I have inquired what the Calvinists think ; but they choose to be 

silent, — a sign that they have not any great thing to object. Mr. R 2 

looked at your book here in my house, and objected to EXerjcrco ov av 
eXeco, Rom. ix. 15. He says, eXeco is, ' I have mercy,' not ' I should have 
mercy.' I observed to Mr. Glascott, ' It is the subjunctive mood, and 
may take the sign should, would, or could, according to the analogy of 
faith.' 



1 Wesley's Works, vol. xiii. p. 41. 

2 Probably Romaine, who was at Berwick, near Shrewsbury, on 
September 9, 1769, and wrote a letter full of his strongest Calvinism. 
(See Romaine's Works, vol. vi., p. 330. Edition 1813.) 



Age 40.] 



Fletcher and Sellon. 



155 



"I long to see Coles 1 answered. My request to you is, that you 
would answer him in the cool manner you have the Synod ; 2 and my 
prayer to God is, that you may be assisted for that important work. 

" I know two strong Calvinist believers, who lately took their leave of 
this world with, ' I shall be damned.' O, what did all their professions 
of perseverance do for them ? They left them in the lurch. May we 
have the power of God in our souls, and we shall readily leave unknown 
decrees to others. 

The Lord give you patience with your brethren ! The best way to 
confound them is, to preach that kingdom of God which they cast 
away, with real righteousness, and present peace and joy in believing; 
that is poison to the synodical kingdom. 

"I despair of seeing you before I have seen Switzerland, which I 
design to visit next winter. Mr. Ireland takes me as far as Lyons in 
my way. 

" There are some disputes in Lady Huntingdon's College ; but when 
the power of God comes, they drop them. The Calvinists are three to 
one. Your book I have sent them as a hard nut for them to crack. 

"May the Lord spare you, and make you a free, joyful soldier of 
the Lord Jesus ; as tough against sin and unbelief as you are against 
Calvin and the Synod ! The Lord has overruled your leaving Smisby 
for good. Let us trust in Him, and all will be well. Farewell. 

"John Fletcher." 3 

This episode respecting Walter Sellon is not irrelevant, 
and is of considerable importance, inasmuch as it relates, in 
part, to the rise of the great Calvinian controversy of the 
last century, in which Fletcher became one of the chief 
actors. Sellon's book, in favour of the doctrine of " General 
Redemption," was the first published by Wesley's adherents, 
and is exceedingly able ; but this is not the place to analyse 
and give an account of it. 

Seventeen years had elapsed since Fletcher left his father's 
house in Switzerland. He had now decided to pay a visit 



1 Elisha Coles, a clerk to the East India Company, who died in 1688. 
His " Practical Discourse of God's Sovereignty," here referred to, was 
answered by Sellon a year or two afterwards. 

2 The Synod of Dort, held at Dort in 1618 and 1619, and consisting 
of thirty-eight Dutch and Walloon divines, five professors of the Dutch 
Universities, and twenty-one Lay-elders ; besides twenty-eight foreign 
divines, from England and other countries. At this celebrated Synod, 
the five points of difference between the Calvinists and Arminians were 
decided in favour of the former. Sellon, in his able book, controverts 
this decision, at all events so far as the doctrine of predestination is 
concerned. 

3 Fletcher's Works, vol. viii., p. 205. 



156 Wesley^ s Designated Successor. [1769. 



to the place of his nativity, and to travel as far as the south 
of France with his generous friend, Mr. Ireland, of Brislington, 
Bristol. The following letter to Mr. Ireland refers to this 
contemplated visit, and to another matter, which must be 
noticed : — 

"Madeley, December 30, 1769. 

"My Dear Friend, — Last night, I received your obliging letter, 
and am ready to accompany you to Montpelier, provided you will go 
with me to Nyon. I shall raise about twenty guineas, and, with that 
sum, a gracious Providence, and your purse, I hope we shall want for 
nothing. If the Lord sends me, I should want nothing, though I had 
nothing, and though my fellow-traveller were no richer than myself. 

" I hope to be at Bristol soon, to offer you my services to pack up. 
You desired to have a Swiss servant, and I offer myself to you in that 
capacity ; for I shall be no more ashamed of serving you, as far as I 
am capable of doing, than I am of wearing your livery. 

"Two reasons (to say nothing of the pleasure of your company) 
engage me to go with you to Montpelier, — a desire to visit some poor 
Huguenots in the south of France, and the need I have to recover a 
little French before I go to converse with my compatriots. 

" The priest at Madeley is going to open his mass-house, and I 
declared war on that account last Sunday, and propose to strip the 
whore of Babylon and expose her nakedness to-morrow. All the papists 
are in a great ferment, and have held meetings to consult on the 
occasion. One of their bloody bullies came ' to pick up a quarrel ' with 
me, as he said, and what would have been the consequence had I not 
had company with me I know not. How far more rage may be kindled 
to-morrow I don't know ; but I question whether it will be right for me 
to leave the field in these circumstances. I forgot to mention that two 
of our poor ignorant Churchmen are about to join the mass-house, which 
also is the cause of my having taken up arms." 1 

Fletcher preached his anti-popery sermon as he intended, 
taking as his text 1 Tim. iv. 1-3 : "Now the Spirit speaketh 
expressly that, in the latter times, some shall depart from 
the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of 
devils ; speaking lies in hypocrisy ; having their conscience 
seared with a hot iron ; forbidding to marry, and commanding 
to abstain from meats, which God hath created to be received 
with thanksgiving of them which believe and know the truth." 
An outline of the sermon may be found in Fletcher's Collected 
Works, vol. vii., p. 490. As the people were leaving the 



1 Letters, 1 791, p. 208. 



Age 40.] 



Rev. Joseph Benson. 



157 



church, a man, who acted as the spokesman of the papists 
present, cried, " There was not a word of truth in the whole 
sermon ; " and then, turning to Fletcher, assured him that 
he would shortly produce a gentleman who would refute 
all that he had said. The threat was not fulfilled and 
Benson, in his " Life of Fletcher," first published in 1 804, 
remarks: — 

" By Mr. Fletcher's bold and prudent stand the designs of the papists 
were in a great measure frustrated, and they were prevented making 
any progress worth mentioning in Madeley. It is true there is even 
now a mass-house and a priest at Madeley, but I find, upon inquiry, 
there are not a dozen Popish families in the parish." 

Fletcher's intended visit to Switzerland was, for a little 
while, deferred ; because he deemed it his duty to await the 
threatened refutation of his anti- popish sermon. Hence, 
early in January 1770, he went to Trevecca ; probably for 
the purpose of meeting Joseph Benson, who was about to 
become head master of the college. 

Joseph Benson was now nearly twenty-two years of age, 
and for the last four years had been the classical master of 
Wesley's school at Kingswood, and was at present keeping 
terms at Oxford. His acquaintance with Fletcher was slight, 
but his admiration of him great. He writes : — 

' ' I had only had two or three interviews with Mr. Fletcher, which 
were, I think, in the year 1768, when I was classical master at Kings- 
wood school. As he occasionally made an excursion from Madeley to 
Bristol and Bath, in one of these excursions we invited him to preach 
at Kingswood. He came, and took as his text, ' Him that cometh 
unto Me I will in no wise cast out.' The people were exceedingly 
affected ; indeed quite melted down. The tears streamed so fast from 
the eyes of the poor colliers that their blackfaces were washed by them. 
As to himself, he was carried out so far beyond his strength that, when 
he concluded, he put off his shirt, which was as wet as if it had been 
dipped in water. But this was nothing strange ; whenever he preached 
it was generally the case. From this time, I conceived a particular 
esteem for him, chiefly on account of his piety ; and wished much for a 
further acquaintance with him, a blessing which I soon after obtained ; 
for through his means, and in consequence of Mr. Wesley's recommen- 
dation to the Countess of Huntingdon, I was made head master of the 



1 Fletcher's Works, vol. vii., p. 494. 



158 



Wesley's Designated Successor. 



[1770. 



academy, or, as it was commonly called, the college, at Trevecca, though 
I could ill be spared from Kingswood, where I had acted in that capacity 
about four years. Being greatly wanted at Kingswood, and having 
likewise a term to keep at Oxford, I could only pay them a short visit 
for the present, which was in January 1770 ; but in the spring following, 
I went to reside there, and for some time was well satisfied with my 
situation." 1 

No record exists of what transpired between Fletcher and 
Benson at Trevecca ; but the following letter, written there, 
and addressed to Mr. Ireland, deserves insertion : — 

"Trevecca, January 13, 1770. 

" My Dear Friend, — I know not what to think of our journey. My 
heart frequently recoils. I have lost all hope of being able to preach 
in French, and I think if I could they would not permit me. I become 
more stupid every day ; my memory fails me in a surprising manner. 
I am good for nothing, but to go and bury myself in my parish. I have 
those touches of misanthropy which make solitude my element. Judge , 
then, whether I am fit to go into the world. On the other hand, I fear 
that your journey is undertaken partly from complaisance to me, and in 
consequence of the engagement we made to go together. I acquit you 
of your promise ; and, if your business does not really demand your 
presence in France, I beg you will not think of going there on my 
account. The bare idea of giving you trouble would make the journey 
ten times more disagreeable to me than the season of the year. 

" The day after I wrote to you I preached the sermons against popery, 
which I had promised to my people ; and Mr. S — t — r called out several 
times in the churchyard, as the people went out of church, that ' there 
was not one word of truth in the whole of my discourse, and that he 
would prove it.' He also told me that he would produce a gentleman 
who should answer my sermon and the pamphlet I had distributed. I 
was, therefore, obliged to declare in the church that I should not quit 
England, and was only going into Wales, from whence I would return 
soon to reply to the answer of Mr. S — t — r and the priest, if they should 
offer any. I am thus obliged to return to Madeley by my word so 

blicly pledged, as well as to raise a little money for my journey. 
Were it not for these circumstances, I believe I should pay you a visit 
at Bristol, notwithstanding my misanthropy. 

"The hamper which you mention, and for which I thank you, pro- 
vided it be the last, arrived three days before my departure, "but not 
knowing what it was, nor for whom it was intended, I put it into my 
cellar without opening it. I want the living water rather than cider, 
and righteousness more than clothes. I fear, however, lest my unbelief 
should make me set aside the fountain whence it flows, as I did your 



1 Benson's " Life of Fletcher." 



Age 40.] First Visit to Switzerland. 



159 



hamper. Be that as it may, it is high time to open the treasures of 
Divine mercy, and to seek in the heart of Jesus for the springs of love, 
righteousness, and life. The Lord give us grace so to seek that we may 
find, and be enabled to say with the woman in the Gospel. ' I have found 
the piece of silver which I had lost.' 

"If your affairs do not really call you to France I will wait until 
Providence and grace shall open a way to me to the mountains of Swit- 
zerland, if I am ever to see them again. Adieu ! Give yourself wholly 
to God. ^divided heart, like a divided kingdom, falls naturally by its 
own gravity either into darkness or into sin/ My heart's desire is that 
the love of Jesus may fill your soul, ancT that of your unworthy and 
greatly obliged servant, 

" John Fletcher." 1 

The journey to Switzerland was deferred, but took place ; 
though no one seems to know the exact date when it was 
begun or when it ended. In the month of July, however, 
Fletcher was again in England. Strangely enough, there is 
no letter of his that refers to the extensive tour made 
by him and his friend Ireland ; but the latter sent the 
following account to Mr. Benson : — 

"I was with Mr. Fletcher, day and night, nearly five months, travelling 
all over Italy and France. At that time, a popish priest resided in his 
parish, who attempted to mislead the poor people. Mr. Fletcher, there- 
fore, throughout this journey, attended the sermons of the Roman 
Catholic clergy, visited their convents and monasteries, and conversed 
with all the most serious among them whom he met with, in order that 
he might know their sentiments concerning spiritual religion. He was 
so very particular in making observations respecting the gross and 
absurd practices of the priests and other clergy, especially while we 
were in Italy, that we were frequently in no small danger of our lives. 
He wished to attend the Pope's chapel at Rome, but I would not consent 
to accompany him till I had obtained a promise from him that he would 
forbear to speak by way of censure or reproof of what he saw or heard. 
He met with many men of science and learning, with whom he conversed 
freely on Gospel truths, which most of them opposed with violence. A 
few listened and were edified. His whole life, as you well know, was a 
sermon ; all his conversations were sermons. Even his disputations 
with infidels were full of instruction. We met with a gentleman of 
fortune, an excellent classical scholar, with whom we continued near 
a fortnight at an hotel. He said he had travelled all over Europe, 
and had passed through all the Societies in England to find a person 
j whose life corresponded with the Gospels and with Paul's Epistles. He 



1 Letters, 1791, p. 210. 



160 Wesley s Designated Successor. [1770. 



asked me (for it was with me he first began to converse) if I knew any 
clergyman or dissenting minister in England, possessed of a stipend of 
£100 a year for the cure of souls, who would not leave them all if he 
were offered double that amount. I replied in the affirmative, and 
pointed to my friend Fletcher ; when disputations commenced, which 
continued for many days." 1 

Mr. Gilpin, in Fletcher's " Portrait of St. Paul," adds to 
this account. He says : — 

? "This debate was continued, by adjournment, for the space of a 
| week. Whatever had been said upon the subject by the most celebrated 
writers was brought forward, and thoroughly discussed. Mr. Fletcher 
repeatedly overcame his antagonist, who regularly lost his temper and 
his cause together. Mr. Fletcher took a view of the Christian's enviable 
life, his consolation in trouble, and his tranquillity in danger ; together 
with his superiority to all the evils of life and the horrors of death ; 
interspersing his remarks with affectionate admonitions and powerful 
persuasives to a rational dependence upon the truths of the Gospel. 
At the conclusion of this memorable debate, the unsuccessful disputant 
conceived so exalted an idea of his opponent's character, that he never 
afterwards mentioned his name but with peculiar veneration and regard ; 
and when they met again, eight years later, in Provence, where the 
gentleman lived in affluence, he showed Air. Fletcher every possible 
civility, entertained him at his house in the most hospitable manner, 
and listened to his conversation on spiritual subjects with all imaginable 
attention and respect." 

Mr. Gilpin mentions another incident of the same kind. 
Fletcher, in his travels, met a young gentleman from Genoa, 
who had imbibed the infidel notions of the day. They had 
a debate, which lasted several days, from morning till night. 
The sceptic was vanquished, and was so struck with the 
masterly skill of Fletcher, and his more than parental concern, 
that, before they parted, he looked up to his instructor with 
reverence, listened to him with admiration, and desired to 
be present at morning and evening prayer.' 2 

While at Marseilles, Mr. Ireland procured for Fletcher the 
use of a Protestant church in that neighbourhood ; but the 
engagement to preach in it caused Fletcher great anxiety, 
probably because he had lost his facility in speaking the 
French language. He prayed about it earnestly all the 



1 Benson's " Life of Fletcher." 

2 " Portrait of St. Paul." 



Age 40.] First Visit to Switzerland. 



161 



week ; and when Sunday morning came, he entreated Mr. 
Ireland to inform the minister of the church that he was 
unable to fulfil his engagement. Mr. Ireland refused ; and 
Fletcher was compelled to ascend the pulpit, where he 
preached with such effect, that the whole congregation, 
among whom were many ministers, were in tears. 1 

He determined, while in the south of France, to visit the 
Protestants in the Cevennes mountains, whose fathers had 
suffered so severely in the cause of Christ ; " the heretics of 
the Cevennes, those accursed remainders of the old Albi- 
genses," as the Bull of Clement XL, dated 1703, designated 
them. The journey was long and difficult, but no argument 
could prevail with him to abandon his resolution of attempting 
it on foot. " Shall I," said he to his friend Ireland, " make 
a visit on horseback and at ease, to those poor cottagers, 
whose fathers were hunted along the rocks, like partridges 
upon the mountains ? No : I will visit them under the 
plainest appearance, with my staff in my hand." Accord- 
ingly, he set out alone, and, after travelling till it was nearly 
dark, he entered a small house, and begged the favour of] 
being allowed to sit in a chair till morning. The master of 
the cottage, after some hesitation, consented. Conversation 
followed ; the host and hostess were charmed ; the best 
provisions in their humble dwelling were given to the 
traveller ; and, before they retired to rest, prayer was pro- 
posed and offered. Early on the morrow, the strange visitant 
renewed his conversation and his prayers ; father, mother, 
and children were melted into tears ; and the poor man 
himself told his neighbours that he had nearly refused to 
admit a stranger into his house, who was more an angel 
than a man. The family were papists. 

Continuing his journey, Fletcher reached a small town, 
where he was entertained by a pious minister, to whom he 
had been recommended. The Protestants received him with 
open arms. He conversed with their elders ; admonished 
their youth ; visited their sick ; and preached with freedom 
and success. Many among them were comforted, and many 
built up in their most holy faith. 



Benson's " Life of Fletcher." 



I I 



1 62 Wesley's Designated Successor. [1770. 



As he travelled over the mountains, he, one day, put up 
in a small dwelling, whose master could hardly speak without 
uttering an oath. Of course, Fletcher, in his own peculiar 
way, reproved the swearer ; and, with such effect, that the 
man confessed his sin ; and ever afterwards, when in danger 
of falling into his old habit, nothing more was necessary to 
restrain him than to remember the saintly stranger who had 
once obtained a lodging beneath his humble roof. 1 

Fletcher and Mr. Ireland proceeded from France to Italy, 
and traversed the celebrated Appian Way. As they ap- 
proached it, Fletcher directed the driver to stop ; for, said 
he to Mr. Ireland, " I cannot ride over ground where the 
Apostle Paul once walked, chained to a soldier." As soon 
as he set his foot upon the old Roman road, he took off his 
hat ; and, walking on with his eyes lifted up to heaven, he 
gave God thanks for the glorious truths which Paul preached. 
He rejoiced that, in England, these truths were still published ; 
and prayed that they might be revived in Italy. He reviewed 
the life, the travels, the labours, and the sufferings of the great 
Apostle, his remarks being intermixed with prayer and praise, 
and the man himself resembling an incarnation of devotion. 3 
On arriving in Switzerland, he was at once solicited by 
the clergy at Nyon to occupy their pulpits. He complied 
with their requests ; and, wherever he was announced to 
preach, multitudes from all quarters flocked to hear him. 
Even deists listened to him with admiration, and the crowds 
seemed to think him more than human. Despisers of reve- 
lation were overawed and confounded ; formalists were roused ; 
and careless sinners startled. One of his converts betook 
himself to sacred studies, and became a Protestant minister 
at Lyons. When the time for Fletcher's departure came, a 
good old minister, of more than threescore years and ten, 
besought him, with indescribable earnestness, to stay a little 
longer, even were it only for a single week ; and, when he 
\ found that this was impracticable, the old gentleman burst 
I into tears, and, addressing Mr. Ireland, cried, " Oh, Sir, how 
unfortunate for my country ! During my lifetime, it has 



1 Gilpin's "Notes to Portrait of St. Paul." 

2 Benson's " Life of Fletcher." 



Age 40.] First Visit to Switzerland. 163 



produced but one angel of a man, and now it is our lot to 
lose him !T At length the carriage, that was to bear away 
the travellers, appeared ; multitudes crowded round about it, 
anxious to receive a last word or look ; and not a few followed 
it for above two miles, before they could summon sufficient 
resolution to bid farewell to their saintly compatriot whom 
they had learned to love so much. 1 

Fletcher reached England about the time of midsummer 
1770. His tour had done him good, and had prepared him 
for the more than ordinary trials that awaited him. 



1 Benson's " Life of Fletcher," 



Wesley' 's Designated Successor, 



[1770. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

COMMENCEMENT OF THE CALVIN IAN 
CONTROVERSY. 

1770 AND I 77 I. 

DURING his absence from England, Fletcher wrote 
several letters to the masters and students of the 
Countess of Huntingdon's College at Trevecca ; x but none 
of these have been published, and, probably, none of them 
now exist. Immediately after his return, and before he had 
an opportunity of visiting the College, he indited the follow- 
ing remarkable epistle : — 

" Madeley, July 23, 1770. 
" To the masters and students of Lady Huntingdon's College. 

"Grace, mercy, and peace attend you, my dear brethren, from God 
our Father, and from our Lord and Brother Jesus Christ ! 

"Brother, do I say ? Should I not rather have written All ? Is not 
He all and in all ? All to believers, for He is their God, as the \oyos 
{the Word), and their Friend, Brother, Father, Spouse, etc., etc., etc., 
as He is \oyos yevo/xevos (rap£ {the Word made flesh). From Him, 
through Him, and in Him, I salute you in the Spirit. I believe He is 
here with me, and in me. I believe He is yonder with you, and in you ; 
for ' in Him we live, move, and have,' not only our animal, but rational 
and spiritual, 'being.' May the powerful grain of faith remove the 
mountain of remaining unbelief, that you and I may see things as God 
sees them ! When this is the case, we shall discover that the Creator 
f is All indeed, and that creatures, which we are wont to put in His place, 
■are mere nothings, passing clouds that our Sun of Righteousness has 
thought fit to clothe Himself with, and paint some of His glories upon, 
[n an instant, He could scatter them into their original nothing, or 
resorb them for ever, and stand without competitor, mrr, the Being. 

" But suppose that all creatures should stand for ever, little signatures 



1 Benson's "Life of Fletcher." 



Age 40.] Letter to Masters and Students, Trevecca College. 165 



pf God, what are they even in their most glorious estate, but as tapers 
'kindled by His light, as well as formed by His power ? Now conceive 
a Sun, a spiritual Sun, whose centre is everywhere, whose circumference 
can be found nowhere ; a Sun whose lustre as much surpasses the 
brightness of the luminary that rules the day, as the Creator surpasses j 
the creature ; and say, What are the twinkling tapers of good men on 
earth, — what is the smoking flax of wicked creatures, — what the glitter- 
ing stars of saints in heaven ? Why, they are all lost in His transcendent I 
glory, and if any one of these would set himself up as an object of 
esteem, regard, or admiration, he must indeed be mad with self and ? 
pride. He must be, as dear Mr. Howell Harris has often told us, a 
foolish apostate, a devil. 

" Understand this, believe this, and you will sink to unknown depths 
of self-horror, for having aspired at being somebody, self-humiliation at 
seeing yourself nobody, or what is worse an evil-body. 

" But I would not have you dwell even upon this evil, so as to lose 
sight of your Sun, unless it be to see Him covered, on this account, with 
our flesh and blood, and wrapt in the cloud of our nature. Then you 
will cry out with St. Paul, ' O the depth ! ' Then, finding the manhood 
is again resorbed^nto the Godhead, you will gladly renounce all selfish, 
separate existence in Adam and from Adam. You will take Christ to 
be your life ; you will become His members by eating His flesh and 
drinking His blood ; you will consider His flesh as your flesh, His bone 
as your bone, His Spirit as your spirit, His righteousness as your righ- 
teousness, His cross as your cross, and His crown (whether of thorns or 
glory) as your crown. You will reckon yourselves to be dead indeed 
unto sin, but alive unto God, through this dear Redeemer. You will 
renounce propriety; you will heartily and gladly say, 'Not I, not I, but 
Christ liveth ; and only because He lives, I do, and shall live also.' 

" When it is so with us, then we are creatures in our Creator, and 
redeemed creatures in our Redeemer. Then we understand and feel 
what He says, ' Without Me the Creator, ye are nothing ; without Me 
the Saviour, ye can do nothing.' v LThe moment I consider Christ and 
myself as two, I am gone,' says Luther ; and I say so tocj I am gone 
into self, and into Antichrist ; for that which will be something, will 
not let Christ be all ; and that which will not let Christ be all, must 
certainly be Antichrist. ) What a poor, jejune , dry thing is doctrinal 
Christianity, compared with the clear 2&Aheartfelt assent that the 
believer gives to these fundamental truths) What life, what strength, 
what comfort flow out from them ! O my friends, let us believe, and we 
shall see, taste, and handle the Word of Life. V ^hen I stand in unbelief, 
I am like a drop of muddy water drying up in the sun of temptation^ I 
can neither comfort, nor help, nor preserve myself. When I do believe 
and close in with Christ, I am like that same drop losing itself in a 
boundless, bottomless sea of purity, light, life, power, and love. There 
my good and my evil are equally nothing ; equally swallowed up ; and 
grace reigns through righteousness unto eternal life. 

" There I wish you all to be. There I beg you and I may meet with 



1 66 



Wesley' } s Designated Successor. 



770. 



all God's children. I long to see you that I may impart unto you (should 
God make use of such a worm) some spiritual gift, and that I may be 
comforted by the mutual faith of you and me, and by your growth in 
grace, and in divine as well as human wisdom, during my long absence. 
I hope matters will be so contrived that I may be with you, to behold 
your order, before the anniversary. Meanwhile, I remain your affec- 
tionate fellow-labourer and servant in the Gospel of Christ, 

"John Fletcher." 1 

No wonder that the visits of a man breathing such a spirit 
were welcomed. Mr. Benson, the head master of the College, 
writes : — 

" He was received as an angel of God. It is not possible for me to 
describe the veneration in which we all held him. Like Elijah, in the 
schools of the prophets, he was revered ; he was loved ; he was almost 
adored ; not only by every student, but by every member of the family. 

" And indeed he was worthy. The reader will pardon me, if he thinks 
I exceed. My heart kindles while I write. Here it was that I saw, 
shall I say, an angel in human flesh ? I should not far exceed the 'truth 
if I said so. But here I saw a descendant of fallen Adam, so fully 
raised above the ruins of the fall, that, though by the body he was tied 
down to earth, his whole conversation was in heave ji. His life, from 
day to day, was hid with Christ in God. Prayer, praise, love, and 
zeal, all ardent, elevated above what one would think attainable in this 
state of frailty, were the element in which he continually lived. As to 
others, his one employment was, to call, entreat, and urge them, to 
ascend with him to the glorious source of being and blessedness. He 
had leisure, comparatively, for nothing else. Languages, arts, sciences, 
grammar, rhetoric, logic, even divinity itself, were all laid aside, when 
he appeared in the schoolroom among the students. His full heart 
would not suffer him to be silent. He must speak, and they were 
readier to hearken to this servant and minister of Jesus Christ, than to 
attend to Sallust, Virgil, Cicero, or any Latin or Greek historian, poet, 
or philosopher they had been engaged in reading. And they seldom 
hearkened long, before they were all in tears, and every heart catched 
fire from the flame that burned in his soul. 

" These seasons generally terminated in this. Being convinced that 
to be 'filled with the Holy Ghost' was a better qualification for the 
ministry of the Gospel than any classical learning (though that too may 
be useful in its place), after speaking awhile in the schoolroom, he used 
frequently to say, ^ As many of you as are athirst for the fulness of the 
Spirit, follow me into my room^ On this, many of us instantly followed 
him, and there continued till noon, for two or three hours, praying for 



1 Benson's " Life of Fletcher." 



Age 40.] Fie cher at Trevecca College. 



167 



one another, till we could bear to kneel no longer. This was done, not 
once or twice, but many times ; and I have sometimes seen him, on 
these occasions — once in particular — so filled with the love of God, that 
he cried out, j O my God, withhold Thy hand, or the vessel will burst !T ) 
But he afterwards told me, he was afraid he had grieved the Spirit of 
God, and that he ought to have prayed that the Lord would have I 
enlarged the vessel, or have suffered it to break, that the soul might ; 
have had no further bar to its enjoyment of the Supreme Good. 

"Such was the ordinary employment of this man of God, while he 
remained at Trevecca. He preached the word of life to the students 
and family, and to as many of the neighbours as desired to be present. 
He was always employed, either in illustrating some important truth, 
or exhorting to some neglected duty, or administering some needful 
comfort, or relating some useful anecdote, or making some profitable 
remark. His devout soul, always burning with love and zeal, led him 
to intermingle prayer with all he uttered. His manner was so solemn 
and, at the same time, so mild and insinuating, that it was hardly 
possible for any one to be in his company without being struck with 
awe and charmed with love, as if in the presence of an angel or departed 
spirit. Indeed, I frequently thought, while attending to his heavenly 
discourse, that he was so different from the generality 7 of mankind as 
to look more like Moses or Elijah, or some prophet or apostle come 
again from the dead, than a mortal man dwelling in a house of clay." 1 

This, to some, may appear excessive eulogy ; and, there- 
fore, the reader is reminded that Joseph Benson, who wrote 
it, was not a weak-minded fanatic, but a man of robust 
understanding, a classical scholar of no mean attainments, 
an able commentator on the Old and New Testaments, one 
of the most powerful and successful preachers of his times, 
and twice President of the Wesleyan Methodist Conference. 
Such a man was not likely to write random words. He 
knew Fletcher, and, to the best of his power, described him 
accurately. And, further, it must be remembered that 
Benson's testimony was endorsed by Wesley, who inserted 
it verbatim in his " Life of Fletcher." 

Such was Fletcher ; and yet this half-angelic man had 
soon to leave Trevecca ! The reasons for this must now 
be given. The subject, will be far from pleasant ; but, in a 
Tife of Fletcher, it cannot be evaded. For some time past, 
the storm of the Calvinian controversy had been brewing ; 
now the crisis came, and the storm burst with terrific 
violence. 



1 Wesley's "Life of Fletcher." 



i68 



Wesley s Designated Successor. 



[177c 



Before proceeding, however, with the history of the con- 
troversy, there is a letter belonging to this period too 
interesting to be omitted. David Simpson, who had be- 
longed to Rowland Hill's Methodist Society, at Cambridge, 
had recently received episcopal ordination, and begun his 
famous ministry. Like Wesley, Whitefield, Berridge, Row- 
land Hill, and others, he was inclined to become, to some 
extent, an itinerant preacher, and, therefore, irregular. He 
was only twenty-four years of age, without experience, and 
in need of counsel. Accordingly, he wrote to Fletcher, who 
returned the following answer : — 

"Madeley, August 4, 1770. 
" Reverend axd Dear Sir, — I have sometimes preached in 
licensed places, but have never been censured for it. Perhaps it is 
because my superiors in the Church think me not worth their notice, 
and despair of shackling me with their unevangelical regularity. If the 
Bishop were to take me to task about this piece of irregularity, I would 
observe, — 

" 1. That the canons of men cannot overthrow the canons of God. 
'Preach the word. Be instant in season and out of season.' 'The 
time cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship,' 
particularly and exclusively of all other places, neither upon mount 
Gerizim, nor upon mount Zion ; but they shall worship everywhere in 
spirit and in truth. The contrary canons are Jewish, and subversive 
of the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free ; yea, contrary to 
the right of Churchmen, which must, at least, include the privilege 
of dissenters. 

"2. Before the Bishop shackled me with canons, he charged me to 
'look for Christ's lost sheep that are dispersed abroad, and for His 
children who are in the midst of this wicked world ; ' and these sheep, 
etc., I will try to gather whenever I meet them. We have a general 
canon : — ' While we have time, let us do good to all men, and especially 
to them who are of the household of faith.' ' Go into all the world, and 
preach the Gospel to every creature ' willing to hear it. 

"A Justice of the Peace would once prosecute me upon the Con- 
venticle Act ; but, when it came to the point, he durst not do it. Some 
of my parishioners went and complained to the Bishop about my con- 
venticles. I wrote to the Registrar that I hoped his Lordship, who had 
given me the above-mentioned charge at my ordination, would not be 
against my following it ; that I thought it hard the tipplers should have 
twenty or thirty tippling-houses, the papists one meeting-house, and 
the dissenters three or four, in my parish, undisturbed, and that I 
should be disturbed, because I would not have God's Word confined to 
one house ; and that, with respect to the canons, it would be absurd 
to put them in force against preaching clergymen, when they were set 



Age 40.] 



Wesley' s Doctrinal Minutes. 



169 



aside with respect to catechising, tippling, gaming, and carding clergy- 
men ; that I did not desire his Lordship to patronize me, in an especial 
manner, in the use of my Christian liberty ; but that I hoped he would 
connive at it. 

"Whether they received my letter or not, I do not know; but they 
never attempted to molest me. 

" Be modestly and steadily bold for God, and your enemies will be 
more afraid of you than you of them ; or if God will honour you with 
the badge of persecution, He will comfort and bless you the more for it. 
May the God of all grace and power be with you more and more ! 
Ask it, dear Sir, for your brother and servant in Christ, 

" J. Fletcher." 1 

Fletcher had been only a few weeks at home, when 
Wesley opened the Annual Conference of his Itinerant 
Preachers. This took place in London, on August 7, 1770. 
The twenty-eighth question of that Conference was, " What 
can be done to revive the work of God where it is decayed ? " 
In answering this, it was resolved, 1. That there must be 
more visitation from house to house ; 2. That the books 
Wesley had printed should be more widely dispersed ; 3. 
That there should be more field-preaching ; 4. That there 
should be preaching at five o'clock in the morning wherever 
twenty hearers could be obtained ; 5. That evils in con- 
gregational singing should be corrected ; 6. That four fast- 
days should be observed every year ; 7. That the Methodists 
must be taught to seek and expect, not only gradual, but 
" instantaneous sanctification " ; 8. That every Itinerant 
Preacher, " in every large town, should spend an hour with 
the children " of the Methodists every week ; 9. That no 
itinerant preacher should be so appointed to preach on 
Sundays, as to keep him " from church above two Sundays 
in four." 

The last answer to the question is the only one that 
concerns the Life of Fletcher, and must be given verbatim. 
Continuing to instruct and direct his preachers, Wesley 
observed, lastly, — 

" Take heed to your doctrine. 

"We said, in 1744, 'We have leaned too much toward Calvinism.' 
Wherein ? 

" 1. With regard to man's faithfulness. Our Lord Himself taught 



Fletcher's Works, vol. viii., p. 257. 



170 



Wesley s Designated Successor. 



[1770. 



us to use the expression, and we ought never to be ashamed of it. We 
ought steadily to assert, on His authority, that if a man is not ' faithful 
in the unrighteous mammon,' God will not give him ' the true riches.'' 

"2. With regard to working for life. This also our Lord has 
expressly commanded us. * Labour,' epya£eo-6e, literally, ' work for the 
meat that endureth to everlasting life.' And, in fact, every believer, 
till he comes to glory, works for as well as from life. 

"3. We have received it as a maxim, that 'a man is to do nothing 
in order to justification.' Nothing can be more false. Whoever desires 
to find favour with God should ' cease from evil, and learn to do well.' 
Whoever repents should do 'works meet for repentance.' And if this 
is not in order to find favour, what does he do them for ? 

" Review the whole affair. 

" 1. Who of us is now accepted of God ? 

" He that now believes in Christ with a loving and obedient heart. 
"2. But who among those who never heard of Christ ? 
" He that feareth God, and worketh righteousness according to the 
light he has. 

"3. Is this the same with ' he that is sincere ' ? 

" Nearly, if not quite. 

"4. Is not this ' salvation by works ' ? 

" Not by the merit of works, but by works as a co?iditio?2. 

"5. What have we then been disputing about for these thirty years ? 

" I am afraid, about words. 

"6. As to merit itself, of which we have been so dreadfully afraid : 
we are rewarded ' according to our works,' yea, ' because of our works.' 
How does this differ from for the sake of our works? And how differs 
this from secundum merita ofierum ? As our works deserve. Can 
you split this hair ? I doubt I cannot. 

"7. The grand objection to one of the preceding propositions is 
drawn from a matter of fact. God does in fact justify those who, by 
their own confession, neither feared God nor wrought righteousness. 
Is this an exception to the general rule ? 

"It is a doubt, God makes any exception at all. But how are we 
sure that the person in question never did fear God and work righteous- 
ness ? His own saying so is not proof ; for we know how, all that are 
convinced of sin undervalue themselves in every respect. 

"8. Does not talking of a justified or a sanctified state tend to 
mislead men, almost naturally leading them to trust in what was 
done in one moment ? Whereas we are every hour and every moment 
pleasing or displeasing to God, ' according to our works.' According 
to the whole of our inward tempers, and our outward behaviour." 1 

For the next five years (1770 — 1775), Fletcher made it 
his duty to explain and defend these theological theses ; and 



1 " Minutes of the Methodist Conferences," vol. i., p. 97, 



Age 40.] Second Anniversary of Trevecca College, 171 



a review of this quinquennial controversy — as concise as 
possible — must now be attempted. 

Eight days after the close of Wesley's Conference, Lady 
Huntingdon, with the Rev. Walter Shirley and the Rev. 
Henry Venn, arrived at Mr. Ireland's residence at Brislington, 
on their way to Trevecca to attend the services in connection 
with the anniversary of the College. Wesley had been at 
the anniversary a year ago, and had been invited to be at 
the present one. Accordingly, he remained in Bristol with 
the expectation of accompanying her ladyship to Wales, but, 
horrified by the doctrinal minutes of his late Conference, she 
wrote to him saying that, until he renounced such doctrines, 
she must exclude him from all her pulpits. Wesley returned 
no reply to this communication, but, next day, calmly and 
quietly set out for Cornwall. 1 

The day after this, the Countess, accompanied by Shirley 
and Venn, Lady Anne Erskine, Miss Orton, Mr. Ireland, 
and Mr. Lloyd, started for Trevecca, where Fletcher^ the 
President of the College, was ready to receive them. Here, 
also, were assembled three of the Methodist clergymen in 
Wales, William Williams, Peter Williams, and Daniel Row- 
lands; likewise Howell Harris, and several other lay preachers 
and exhorters. On Wednesday, August 23, at nine in the 
morning, Shirley administered the Lord's Supper ; at ten, 
Fletcher preached ; at two in the afternoon, Venn addressed 
the students ; and at four, Howell Harris addressed a large 
congregation in the court of the College. On Thursday 
morning, August 24 , Venn administered the sacrament ; at 
ten, Daniel Rowlands and William Williams preached in the 
court ; at two, Shirley examined the students, and gave an 
exhortation ; at four, Peter Williams discoursed in the chapel, 
and some of the lay preachers in the court. In the evening 
Berridge arrived at the College. 

On Friday, August 24, the anniversary day of the opening, 
a public prayer-meeting was held in the chapel, at six o'clock 
in the morning, when Rowlands, Williams, Harris, and Ber- 



1 It is said that when Shirley sent her ladyship a copy of Wesley's 
Doctrinal Minutes, she burnt it. (Bogue and Bennett's " History of 
Dissenters.") 



172 



Wesley' s Designated Successor, 



[1770. 



ridge offered prayer ; after which Fletcher, as President of 
the College, administered the Lord's Supper, first to ten 
clergymen, then to the students, then to Lady Huntingdon 
and her household, and then to the congregation in general. 
Public service began at ten. A scaffold was erected in the 
court, on which sat all the clergy, dissenting ministers, lay 
preachers, and students. Fletcher read the liturgy of the 
Church of England, Peter Williams offered extemporary 
prayer, the vast congregation sang most lustily the glorious 
hymn of heretical Wesley, beginning with the line, 

"Arm of the Lord, awake, awake ! " 

Shirley preached from the words, " For after that, in the 
wisdom of God, it pleased God, by the foolishness of preaching, 
to save them that believe." Then William Williams followed 
with a sermon in Welsh. At two, her ladyship's guests all 
dined, the people in the chapel and in the court continuing 
to sing and pray. At three, Berridge discoursed from, "They 
went forth and preached everywhere, the Lord working with 
them, and confirming the word with signs following.*? After 
him, Daniel Rowlands, in his own eloquent and powerful 
manner, addressed the multitude in Welsh, taking as his 
text, " We preach Christ crucified." In the evening, Venn 
delivered a sort of charge to the ministers, students, and lay 
preachers, from the text, " Preach the word ; be instant in 
season, out of season ; " and Fletcher concluded the services 
of the anniversary by offering prayer. 

The next morning, however, at seven o'clock, these godly 
and earnest people held another prayer-meeting in the 
chapel, in which Shirley, Venn, Berridge, and Fletcher took 
part. On the day following, Sunday, August 26, Venn and 
Berridge preached, and then this memorable assemblage 
dispersed, Lady Huntingdon proceeding, by way of Berwick 
and Worcester, to Bristol, where she met Charles Wesley, 
and, despite the heresy of his brother and the itinerants at 
the late Conference, took him to Bath to preach several 
times in her chapel in that city. 1 



1 "Life and Times of the Countess of Huntingdon," vol. ii., pp. 106 — 
109. 



Age 41.] 



Wesley Traduced. 



173 



Truly, these were glorious days ; but, mournful to relate, 
they were soon followed by days of strife and bitterness. 
Wesley was accused of having renounced the doctrines of 
the Reformation. He was traduced as a Pelagian, a Pharisee, 
a Papist, an Antichrist. 1 All this was unjust and untrue. 
In less than four months after the memorable Conference of 
1770, Wesley preached his "Sermon on the Death of 
Whitefield," in which he said : — 

"The fundamental point of Mr. Whitefield was, give God all the 
glory of whatever is good in man ; and, in the business of salvation, 
set Christ as high, and man as low as possible. With this point, he 
and his friends at Oxford, the original Methodists (so-called) set out. 
Their grand principle was, there is no power (by nature) and no merit 
in man. They insisted, all power to think, speak, or act right, is in 
and from the Spirit of Christ ; and all merit is (not in man, how high 
soever in grace, but merely) in the blood of Christ. So he and they 
taught : There is no power in man, till it is given him from above, to 
do one good work, to speak one good word, or to form one good desire. 
For it is not enough to say, all are sick of sin : no, we are all dead in 
trespasses and sins. It follows that all the children of men are by nature 
children of wrath. We are all guilty before God, liable to death 
temporal and eternal. 

"And we are all helpless, both with regard to the power and to the 
guilt of sin. For who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean ? 
None less than the Almighty. Who can raise those that are dead, 
spiritually dead in sin ? None but He who raised us from the dust of 
the earth. But on what consideration will He do this ? Not for works 
of righteousness that we have done. The dead cannot praise Thee, 
O Lord / nor do anything for the sake of which they should be raised 
to life. Whatever therefore God does, He does it merely for the sake 
of His well-beloved Son : He was wounded for our transgressions, He 
was bruised for oitr iniquities. He Himself bore all our sin in His 
own body upon the tree. He was delivered for our offences, and rose 
again for oztr justification. Here then is the sole meritorious cause 
of every blessing we do or can enjoy: in particular of our pardon and 
acceptance with God, of our free and full justification. But by what 
means do we become interested in what Christ has done and suffered ? 
Not by works, lest any man should boast ; but by faith alone. We 
conclude, says the Apostle, that a man is justified by faith, without 
the works of the law. And to as many as thus receive Him, giveth 
He power to become the sons of God : even to those that believe in His 
name, who are bom, not of the will of man, bid of God. 

"And except a man be thus born again, he cannot see the kingdom 



1 Fletcher's Works, vol. i., p. 209. 



174 Wesley s Designated Successor. [177 1. 



of God. But all who are thus born of the Spirit, have the kingdom 
of God within them. Christ sets up His kingdom in their hearts — 
righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost. That mind is in 
them, which was in Christ Jesus, enabling them to walk as Christ 
also walked. His indwelling Spirit makes them both holy in heart, 
and holy in all mamier of conversation. But still, seeing all this is 
a free gift, through the righteousness and blood of Christ, there is 
eternally the same reason to remember, He that glorieth, let him glory 
in the Lord. 

"You are not ignorant, that these are the fundamental doctrines 
which he (Mr. Whitefield) everywhere insisted on. And may they not 
be summed up, as it were, in two words, The new birth, and justifi- 
cation by faith. These let us insist upon, with all boldness, at all 
times, and in all places. In public (those of us who are called thereto), 
and, at all opportunities, in private. Keep close to these good old un- 
fashionable doctrines, how many soever contradict and blaspheme. Go 
on, my brethren, in the name of the Lord, and in the power of His 
might. With all care and diligence, keep that safe which is com- 
7?titted to your trust : knowing that heaven and earth shall pass 
away ; but this truth shall not pass away." 1 

Thus did Wesley address the crowds of Calvinists, in 
Whitefield's two London chapels, on Sunday, November 18, 
1770. There can be no doubt that he meant this to be 
an answer to the misrepresentations and calumnies launched 
against him, on account of the doctrinal minutes of his 
recent Conference. It ought to have been sufficient to 
silence his adversaries, but it was not. Passion is more 
easily excited than appeased. In a letter to the Countess 
of Huntingdon, Lady Glenorchy 2 wrote : — 

"Edinburgh, January 10, 1771 . 
"Your ladyship's account of what occurred at Mr. Wesley's last 
Conference does not surprise me. I have since seen the Minutes, and 
must bear my feeble testimony against the sentiments contained in 
them. May the Lord God of Israel be with you, and enable you to 
make a firm stand in defence of a free-grace Gospel ! Lady Anne's 
letter has told me all you have been doing in this momentous affair. 
When you next write to dear Mr. Shirley, give my kindest regards to 
him, and also to Mr. Venn, Mr. Fletcher, and Mr. Romaine? From 
what Lady Anne says, I fear very much for Mr. Fletcher that he will 



1 Wesley's " Sermon on the Death of Whitefield," p. 26. 

2 Lady Glenorchy opened a number of chapels, both in Scotland and 
England, and did her utmost to supply them with evangelical ministers. 
She was, in fact, the Lady Huntingdon of Scotland. 



Age 41.] Joseph Benson dismissed from Trevecca College. 175 



be carried off by Mr. Wesley's influence. What will be the end of this 
business I know not. I know Mr. Wesley is greatly displeased with 
me, though I have always countenanced his preachers ; but now I find 
this cannot be done by me any longer. Nevertheless, I respect him 
highly, and pray that he may be led in the way of truth." 1 

Lady Glenorchy executed her conscientious threat. Lady 
Huntingdon had already done the same. Further action 
was taken. Joseph Benson was dismissed from Trevecca 
College, because he adhered to the doctrines of Wesley. 
The good Countess, however, gave him the following cer- 
tificate : — 

"This is to certify that Mr. Joseph Benson was master for the lan- 
guages in my College at Talgarth for nine months, and that, during 
that time, from his capacity, sobriety, and diligence, he acquitted him- 
self properly in that character ; and I am ready at any time to testify 
this on his behalf whenever required. 

"College, January 17, 1771. S. Huntingdon." 2 

Benson was unexceptionable as a classical master ; but, 
in her ladyship's opinion, he was a heretic in theological 
dogmas, because he did not believe the doctrine of absolute 
predestination. 3 Fletcher, the president of the college, was 
dissatisfied with her ladyship's dismissal of the master, and 
wrote to her as follows : — 

" January 7, 1771. 

"Mr. Benson made a very just defence when he said, he held with 
me the possibility of salvation for all men ; that mercy is offered to all ; 
and yet may be received or rejected. If this be what your ladyship 
calls Mr. Wesley's opinion, free-will, and Arminianism, and if 'every 
Arminian must quit the College,' I am actually discharged also; for, 
in my present view of things, I must hold that sentiment, if I believe 
that the Bible is true, and that God is love. 

" For my part, I am no party-man. In the Lord, I am your servant, 
and that of your every student ; but I cannot give up the honour of being 
connected with my old friends, who, notwithstanding their failings, are 
entitled to my respect, gratitude, and assistance, could I occasionally 
give them any. Mr. Wesley shall always be welcome to my pulpit, and 
I shall gladly bear my testimony in his, as well as in Mr. Whitefield's. 
But if your ladyship forbid your students to preach for the one, and 



1 " Life and Times of the Countess of Huntingdon," vol. i., p. in. 

2 Macdonald's " Life of Benson." 

3 Benson's " Life of Fletcher." 



176 Wesley's Designated Successor. [1771. 

" 1* 

offer them to preach for the other at every turn ; and if a master is 
discarded for believing that Christ died for all ; then prejudice reigns, 
charity is cruelly wounded, and party spirit shouts, prevails, and 
triumphs." 

On the same day, Fletcher wrote to the dismissed Benson 
the following : — 

"January 7, 1771 . 

"Dear Sir, — The same post brought me yours, and two from my 
lady, and one from Mr. Williams. 1 Their letters contained no charges, 
but general ones, which with me go for nothing. If the procedure you 
mention be fact, and your letter be a fair account of the transactions 
and words relative to your discharge, a false step has been taken. 
I write by this post to her ladyship on the affair, with all possible plain- 
ness. If the plan of the college be overthrown, I have nothing more to 
say to it. I will keep to my tent for one ; the confined tool of any one 
party I never was, and never will be. If the blow that should have been 
struck at the dead spirit, is struck at dead Arminius, or absent Mr. 
Wesley, — if a master is turned away without any fault, it is time for me 
to stand up with firmness, or to withdraw. 

" Take care, my dear Sir, not to make matters worse than they are ; 
and cast a mantle of forgiving love over the circumstances that might 
injure the cause of God, so far as it is put into the hands of that 
eminent lady, who has so well deserved of the Church of Christ. Rather 
suffer in silence, than make a noise to cause the Philistines to triumph. 
Do not let go your expectation of a baptism from above. May you be 
supported in this and every other trial ! Farewell ! 

"J. Fletcher." 

Two days later, Fletcher wrote again to Benson as 
follows : — 

" January 9, 1771 . 
" I am determined to stand or fall with the liberty of the College. As 
I entered it a free place, I must quit it the moment it is a harbour for 
party spirit. 

" As I am resolved to clear up this matter or quit my province, I beg 
you will help me to as many facts and words, truty done, and really 
spoken, as you can ; whereby I may show that false reports, groundless 
suspicions, party spirit against Mr. Wesley, arbitrary proceedings, and 
unscriptural impulses, hold the reins and manage affairs in the College ; 
as also that the balance of opinions is not maintained, and Mr. Wesley's 



1 A clergyman, who, professing to be under serious impressions, had 
been permitted by her ladyship to stay a few weeks at the college ; but 
was neither master nor student. Fletcher termed him "a bird of 
passage." 



Age 4i.] Fletchers Unpublished Letter to Wesley. 177 



opinions are dreaded, and struck at, more than deadness of heart, and 
a wrong conduct. 

" So far as we can, let us keep this matter to ourselves. When you 
speak of it to others, rather endeavour to palliate than aggravate what 
has been wrong in your opposers. Remember that great lady has been 
an instrument of great good, and that there are great inconsistencies 
attending the greatest and best of men. Possess your soul in patience. 
See the salvation of God ; and believe, though against hope, that light 
will spring out of darkness. 

" I am, with concern for you and that poor College, 

" Yours, in Jesus, 

"J. Fletcher." 

On February 20, Fletcher set out for the College j 1 and, 
on his return to Madeley, he wrote to Wesley the following 
hitherto unpublished letter : — 

" Madeley, March 18, 1771. 
" Rev. AND Dear Sir, — I was sorry not to have had it in my power 
to meet you in Shropshire, 2 and give you, by word of mouth, an account 
of what passed at Lady Huntingdon's College respecting you, at my 
last visit there. 

" The hasty admitting of subjects that did not appear to me proper; 
the sanguine hopes they would turn out against probability, the divisions 
at Brecknock and the Hay, and some things that I did not approve in 
Mr. Benson's dismission, gave me a disgust to the College. Never- 
theless, I went to try to make the best of the matter; but I found at 
rny arrival that the students had been armed by Mr. Shirley against the 
point I had, with some success, maintained when I was there before, 
namely, internal conversion by the power of the. Holy Ghost dwelling in 
the heart by faith. He called it perfection, and as such baited it out 
of the place. 

" I saw the College was no longer my place, as I was not likely to do 
or receive any good there, especially as. Calvinism strongly prevailed. 
Under these circumstances, and humbling views of my insufficiency, I 
told my lady and all around me, I resigned the place of superintendent; 
nevertheless, I would stay awhile to supply the want of a master. 

" In the meantime, an extract of your last Minutes was sent to my 
lady, who wept much over it, through an honest fear that you had fairly 
and fully given up the grand point of the Methodists, free justification, 
articulum stantis vel cadentis ecclesice. The heresy appeared horrible 
worth being publicly opposed, and such as a true believer ought to be 
ready to burn against. I tried to soften matters, but in vain. The 
students were commanded to write their sentiments upon your doctrine 



1 " Life and Times of Wesley," vol. iii., p. 88. 

2 Wesley was at Wem only three days before this letter was written. 



I 2 



i78 



Wesley s Designated Successor. 



[i77 



of salvation by works, working for life, the merit of works, etc. ; and 
whoever did not fully disavow it, was to quit the College. I wrote among 
the rest, and showed the absurdity of inferring from these Minutes that 
you had renounced the Protestant doctrine and the atonement. I 
defended your sentiments, by explaining them as I have heard you do, 
and only blamed the unguarded arid not sufficiently explicit manner in 
which they were worded. I concluded by saying, that, as, after Lady 
Huntingdon's declaration, I could no longer stay in the College, but as 
an intruder, I absolutely resigned my place, as I must appear to all 
around as great a heretic as yourself. 

"This step had a better effect than I expected. My lady weighed 
with candour what I had advanced, though she thought it too bad to be 
laid before the students. In short, I retired in peace and as peacemaker, 
the servant and no more the principal of the College. I advised Lady 
Huntingdon to choose a moderate Calvinist in my place, and recom- 
mended Mr. Rowland Hill. The College will take quite a Calvinist 
turn, and an itinerant ministry will go out of it to feed the Church of 
God of that sentimental denomination. I strongly recommended them 
to set fire to the harvest of the Philistines, and not to that of their fellow 
Israelites who cannot pronounce Shibboleth in their way. M)' lady 
seemed quite disposed for peace last Friday ; 1 and she will write to you 
to beg you will explain yourself upon the Minutes, that she and the 
College may see you are not an enemy to grace, and may be friends at 
a distance, instead of open adversaries. 

" And now, my dear Sir, I beseech you to put on all the bowels of 
mercy and condescension that are in Christ, to hope the College and 
its foundress mean well ; and give them all the satisfaction you can. I 
need not bring to your remembrance the words of the Apostle, 'As much 
as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men.' I trust they are graven 
on your heart, and that, should war ensue, your moderation will still 
appear to all men. The points that will most stop the mouth of our 
friend are the total fall of man, and his utter inability to do any good of 
himself ; the absolute necessity of the grace and Spirit of God to raise 
even a good thought or desire in the heart ; the Lord rewarding no 
work, or accepting of none, but so far as they proceed from His pre- 
venting, convincing, and converting grace ; the blood and righteousness 
of Christ being the sole meritorious cause of our salvation, and the only 
spring of all acceptable works, whether we do them spontaneously from 
life or for more abundant life. 

"I look upon Lady Huntingdon as an eminent servant of God, an 
honest, gracious person, but not above the reach of prejudice ; and 
where prejudice misleads her, her warm heart makes her go rather too 
fast. It is in your power greatly to break, if not altogether to remove, 
the prejudice she has conceived against you, and to become all things 
to her, that you may not cause her to stumble in the greatness of her 



The day Wesley was at Wem, namely, March 15. 



4i.] Fletcher Resigns his Office at Trevecca. 179 



zeal for the Lord. [The best way to get the Calvinists to allow us some- 
thing, is to grant them all we possibly can. . 

" As your enemies will particularly watch your writings and sermons, 
and Satan your heart to find an occasion against you by self-righteous- 
ness and dependence upon your great works, my prayer is that you may 
fully disappoint them, by guarding the Gospel truth in your own heart 
and life and doctrine, as much from the legal as the antinomian extreme, 
between which it invariably lies . 

"With respect to me, I am not yet a Christian in the full sense of 
the word ; but I follow after, if so be I may apprehend that for which I 
am apprehended of Christ. Take no notice of my scrawl. Pray for, 
and direct, Rev. and dear Sir, your affectionate friend and unworthy 
servant in Christ, 

" T. Fletcher. 

"To 

"The Rev. Mr. John Wesley, 
" At the Octagone, 

"Chester." (Salop postmark.) 

Four days after the date of this letter, Fletcher wrote to 
Benson, giving him some of the particulars just recited ; but 
also mentioning other facts, too interesting and important to 
be omitted here. 

"March 22, 1771. 
" My Dear Friend. — On my arrival at the College, I found all very 
quiet, I fear through the enemy keeping his goods in peace. While I 
preached the next day, I found myself as much shackled as ever I was 
in my life ; and, after private prayer, I concluded I was not in my place. 
The same day 1 I resigned my office to my lady ; and, on Wednesday, 
to the students and the Lord. Nevertheless, I went on as usual, only I 
had no heart to give little charges to the students, as before. I should 
possibly have got over it as a temptation, if several circumstances had 
not confirmed me in my design. Two I shall mention. When Mr. 
Shirley was at the College, what you had written upon the ' baptism of 
the Holy Ghost' was taken to pieces. Mr. Shirley maintained that the 
prophecy of Joel (Acts ii.) had its complete fulfilment on the day of 
Pentecost ; and thus he turned the stream of living waters into imper- 
ceptible dews, nemine contradicente, except two, who made one or two 
feeble objections ; so that the point was, in my judgment, turned out of 
the College after you, and was abused under the name of ' Perfection. 
This showed I was not likely to receive or do any good there. 

"Some days after my arrival, however, I preached the good old 

doctrine before my Lady and Mr. H . The latter also talked of 

imperceptible influences, and the former thanked me ; but, in my appre- 



1 Wesley says he " sjbent the day in fasting and prayer." (Wesley's 
Works, vol. vii., p. 416.) 



i8o 



Wesley' s Designated Successor. 



[177 



hension, spoiled all by going to the College the next day, to give a 
charge partly against Perfection, in my absence. 

" Last Friday, I left them all in peace, the servant, but no more the 
president of the College. My lady behaved with great candour and 
condescension towards me in the affair. As for you, you are still out 
of her books, and are likely so to continue. Your last letters have only 
thrown oil on the fire. All was seen in the same light in which Mr. 
Wesley's letter appeared. You were accused of having alienated my 
heart from the College, but I have cleared you. 

" I rejoice that your desires after a larger measure of the Holy Spirit 
increase. Part rather with your heart's blood than with them. Let 
me meet you at the throne of grace ; and send me word how you dispose 
of yourself. If you are at a loss for a prophet's room, remember I have 
one here. 

" J. Fletcher." 1 

To these letters must be added a verbatim copy of an 
important document, altogether in Fletcher's own hand- 
writing, and never published until now. 

"An account of John Fletcher's case, with the reasons that have 
induced him to resign the superintendency of the Countess of 
Huntingdon's College in Wales. 

" I was first connected with Mr. Wesley, under whom, for love and 
gratitude's sake, I occasionally laboured some years. 

" By Mr. C. Wesley I had the honour of being presented to Lady 
Huntingdon, who kindly admitted me to the office of a private chaplain, 
and granted me full leave to assist my old friends as often as I would. 

" By means of her ladyship I was afterwards introduced to Mr. 
Whitefield, and had the honour of assisting him also both in London 
and Bristol, and found myself peculiarly happy in showing, by my equal 
readiness to throw my mite of assistance where it was accepted, that 
though I was the Lord's free man I delighted to be the common servant 
of all. I was glad also to have from time to time an opportunity of 
bearing a kind of practical testimony against the spirit of party and 
division, which, to my great grief, crumbled the Church of Christ 
around me. 

"After taking a dangerous turn into the doctrines of election and 
reprobation, my sentiments settled at last into the anti-Calvinist way, 
in which Mr. Wesley was rooted. Notwithstanding this, it became a 
steady, invariable point with me never to be so attached to his, or any 
one party, as to be shy of, much less break with another. 

" I had soon an opportunity of being closely tried in my spirit of 
catholic love. Mr. Maxfield separated from his and my old friend 
Mr. Wesley. I thought him rather in the wrong, and Mr. Wesley was 
my oldest acquaintance. Notwithstanding, I ventured upon the loss of 



1 Benson's Life, by Macdonald. 



Age 4i.] Important Unpublished Manuscript. 1 8 1 



his friendship, and of my connection with him, by publicly assisting 
Mr. Maxfield when the breach between them was widest, and the press 
groaned under the unkind productions of their unhappy division. 1 
Though I touched Mr. Wesley's friendship in the tenderest part, he 
bore with me, and his patience increased my regard for him ; nor is it 
at all abated now, though I have had little opportunity to show it him, 
having hardly exchanged one or two letters with him these many years.* 
" Soon after Lady Huntingdon founded her College, and partly by her 
unmerited esteem, partly by Providence, and partly by my desire to be 
a Gibeonite to God's people and hew wood if I could not draw water, 
I was brought to have a principal share in the management of it. The 
free spirit that breathed in the noble foundress's proposals, and the 
general terms of admittance, suited my catholic taste, and the liberty 
of sentiment granted to all that firmly maintained our total fall in Adam, 
attached me no less to the institution than its excellence and the prospect 
of its usefulness. 

" Scruples nevertheless rose in my mind. The first was a fear lest 
improper subjects, persons destitute either of grace or gifts, perhaps of 
both, were admitted with the greatest readiness, and kept upon the 
foundation with the most sanguine hopes that a day of Pentecost would 
make them what they did not appear to me to be as yet — Christians and 
preachers. Flattering myself that it would be so, after some modest 
expostulations I submitted my judgment to that of the noble foundress, 
whose light I think in general as superior to mine as is her rank and 
grace. 

" The Brecknock division 2 broke out. I suddenly tried to prevent it, 
but it took place, and secretly wounded my catholic spirit. Neverthe- 
less, hopes that the Lord might overrule it for good soon healed the 
wound. This brought on a rupture between my two dear and honoured 
friends, the foundress of the college and Mr. Wesley. An unkind, 
though I hope well-meant letter, was wrote on the occasion bv one, and 
was unkindly received, yea, looked upon as highly insulting, by the 
other. I saw the advantage of the enemy. I blamed, and yet I loved 



1 After many unhappy contentions, and much forbearance on Wesley's 
part, Thomas Maxfield seceded from Wesley in 1763. Maxfield has 
been far more highly honoured in Methodist histories and biographies 
than his merits warranted. 

2 I have failed in my endeavour to ascertain what is meant by the 
" Brecknock division." There can be no doubt, however, that Wesley 
met with great annoyance in that part of Wales. Previous to the 
opening of Trevecca College, he wrote :— 

" 1767. September 2. — I found the work of God in Pembrokeshire had 
been exceedingly hindered, chiefly by Mr. Davies's preachers, who had 
continually inveighed against ours, and thereby frightened abundance 
of people from hearing or coming near them. This had sometimes 
provoked them to retort, which always made a bad matter worse. The 
advice, therefore, which I gave them was: — 1. Let all the people sacredly 
abstain from backbiting, tale-bearing, evil-speaking. 2. Let all our 
preachers abstain from returning railing for railing, either in public or 



182 



Wesley s Designated Successor. 



[ill 



them both. Where I could not soften matters I remained neuter. 
Hence, however, arose a difficulty how I should be faithful to my lady 
without being unfaithful to Mr. Wesley. Meantime, the prejudice 
seemed to me to rise, and somewhat sowed the seeds of the Hay division. 
Mr. Benson's dismission followed, and though I hope it was from 
the Lord, yet I could not help blaming the manner in which it was 
conducted. 

^Lady Huntingdon said on the occasion, nobody that held Mr. 
Wesley's opinions should stay in the College ; every Arminian should 
quit the place. This wounded again my catholic spirit, and appeared 
to me a breach of the privilege most solemnly granted to the members 
of the College at the opening of it. I thought that my lady had no 
right to impose such a law — a law so contrary to her first proposals — 
till it had received a proper sanction by a majority of the votes both of 
masters and students, and till leave had been granted to those who 
could not in conscience come into it to withdraw quietly, without the 
odium of an expulsion. I observed that if this was the case, I looked 
upon myself as discharged, because I for one could no more believe 
that Christ did not taste death for every man, than I could believe God 
was not truth and love ; and because all the sentiments of Mr. Wesley 
obnoxious to the Calvinist, except perfection, are inseparably con- 
nected with general redemption. 

^^With regard to perfection itself, I believe that when Mr. Wesley is 
altogether consistent upon that subject, he means absolutely nothing 
by it but the full cluster of Gospel blessings, which Lady Huntingdon 
so warmly presses the students to pursue ; namely, Gospel faith, the 
immediate revelation of Christ, the baptism of the Holy Ghost, the 
Spirit of adoption, the kingdom that cannot be moved, the element of 
forgiving love, deep and uninterrupted poverty of spirit, and, in a word, a 
standing upon Mount Sion and enjoying its great and glorious privileges. 
And I am fully persuaded that, in this respect, there is more misunder- 
standing between my lady and Mr. Wesley about words and modes of 
expression than about things and essential principles. All the difference 
between them seems to me to consist in this : my lady is more for 
looking to the misery and depth of the fall ; Mr. Wesley more for con- 
sidering the power and effects of the recovery. My lady speaks glorious 



in private, as well as from disputing. 3. Let them never preach con- 
troversy, but plain, practical, and experimental religion." 

A year and a half after Fletcher left Trevecca, Wesley wrote again in 
his journal : — 

" 1772. August 14. — About noon, at the request of my old- friend 
Howell Harris, I preached at Trevecca, on the strait gate, and we 
found our hearts knit together as at the beginning. He said, ' I have 
borne with these pert, ignorant young men, vulgarly called students, 
till I cannot in conscience bear any longer. They preach barefaced 
reprobation, and so broad antinomianism, that I have been constrained 
to oppose them to the face, even in the public congregation.' It is no 
wonder they should preach thus. What better can be expected from 
raw lads of little understanding, little learning, and no experience? " 



Age 4i.] Important Unpublished Manuscript. 183 



things of free grace ; and Mr. Wesley inculcates the glorious use we 
ought to make of it. Both appear to me to maintain one and the same 
truth, and to guard it ; my lady against the Legalists, Mr. Wesley 
against the Antinomians. If, therefore, they do not understand one 
another, and fall out by the way, I shall think it is a great pity, and 
shall continue to be, at least in my heart, the loving servant of both ; 
though both will possibly think me prejudiced for not seeing just as 
they do. 

" I was also grieved that my lady should have received for truth so 
absurd an imagination as that of Mr. Wesley being willing to give^ioo 
a-year to a rigid Calvinist in bondage, who just read prayers with a 
Welsh accent, and that wise Benson made the foolish proposal to him, 
when Benson, to my certain knowledge, feared his head was at times a 
little affected. And I began to fear lest my lady should, upon the most 
improbable assertions, receive unfavourable impressions against me, as 
she had done against her old friend Mr. Wesley, especially as my par- 
ticular regard for him was still the same. 

" Be that as it will, my regard for Lady Huntingdon and the students 
made me send her ladyship my sentimental creed, that, if she did not 
disapprove of it, I might come to the College ; and I came, to my 
thinking and feeling, as free and as happy as ever, and was quite free 
on the Saturday evening and the next morning till noon, when the little 
commission and authority I had to exhort the students was quite taken 
away from me. As I preached in the chapel, an uncommon weight 
came upon me on a sudden, and it was not without much difficulty that 
I struggled under it through the rest of my sermon. As soon as the 
service was over, I retired to my room in very great heaviness and 
distress. I saw in the clearest light that I was not in my place, and 
must no longer preside in the College. From that time, I had no heart 
to speak to the students on the things of God. So clear and strong was 
my conviction that I mentioned it directly to Mr. Howell Harris, and 
that very evening to my lady, and to all the students on the next 
Wednesday ; and as I concluded our morning meeting with prayer, I 
was led solemnly upon my knees to resign my charge to God, and to 
pray for a proper person to preside in my place. 

"Nevertheless my high regard for my lady, and my love for the 
students, prevented me from being faithful to my conviction, ^and I would 
have quenched it, if I had been able. But several things happened 
which gave me courage to be faithful. 

" Lady Huntingdon showed me a letter to Hook, which she had read 
to the students ; and, though I admired the honesty and impartiality 
that appeared in it, I afterwards thought hard of that expression, that 
every one who held eternal justification must quit the College. This 
appeared to me as severe upon consistent Calvinists, as the like expres- 
sion before upon consistent Arminians, as, I believe, every Predestinarian, 
who will not contradict himself, must hold himself eternally justified in 
God's sight. 

" I had reason to fear Mr. Shirley, that great minister whom I honour 
much in the Lord, had said he would oppose through the world the 



Wesley* s Designated Successor. 



[i77 



doctrine of the baptism of the Holy Ghost, which I am bound in con- 
science to maintain among all professors, especially in the College. 
From these different views of things, I saw difficulties would perpetually 
arise to her ladyship, the College, and myself. 

" I was also grieved that when he tried his well-meant zeal (though 
it was not, in my judgment, zeal according to knowledge) to explode 
the baptism of the Holy Ghost, and laugh it out of the College, after 
having dressed it in a fool's coat and called it Perfection, most of the 
students had tamely allowed him that Joel's prophecy was entirely ful- 
filled upon the hundred and twenty disciples on the day of Pentecost, 
that believers are to grow in grace by imperceptible dews, and that 
we can do very well without a remarkable shower of grace and Divine 
effusion of power, opening in us the well of living water that is to flow 
to everlasting life. 

"As it appeared to me they had, in a good degree, given up their 
little expectation of this Gospel blessing, and renounced the grand point 
which I apprehended was to be firmly maintained and vigorously pursued 
in the College, I did not feel the same liberty with them in prayer, and 
found that, as matters were and appeared likely to continue, my con- 
victions and desires would rather be damped than cherished among 
them. 

" Nor, indeed, did I see, upon this new plan, any advantage this 
College was to have more than the academy at Abergavenny, itinerancy 
excepted ; so that I feared many would get into the habit of preaching 
by rote, and of talking of the power without heartily waiting for it, which 
made me give up my hopes that those who have not gifts should ever 
be useful preachers, as a day of Pentecost and power from on high can 
alone supply the want of them. 

"My lady, likewise, appeared to me so excessively afraid of Perfection, 
that she seemed to take umbrage at a harmless expression I had used 
in a letter hastily written to a friend, ' The fiei'y baptism will bur?i 
uft self' — an expression which I had caught from Mr. Harris, who 
frequently uses it, though no one will accuse him of befriending Mr. 
Wesley's doctrine of Perfection. Whatsoever he means by it, I mean 
nothing but to convey the idea of a power that enables us to say, with a 
tolerable degree of propriety, as St. Paul, ' I live not, but Christ lives in 
me ; ' and I saw that, if I was faithful to my light, misapprehensions of 
the like kind, and well or ill grounded fears, would perpetually arise. 

" But what weighed most with me, next to what passed in my heart, 
the third Sunday in Lent, was the strong light in which I saw the great 
difficulty arising from the difference of sentiments between the students 
and myself. I had frequently observed that, if I tried to stir up those 
who appeared to be carnally secure, or spiritually asleep on their soft 
doctrinal pillows, they directly fancied I aimed at robbing them of one 
of their jewels, the doctrine of perseverance, though the Searcher of 
hearts knows I had not the least thought about it. By the same 
stratagem of the enemy, when I exhorted loiterers to leave the things 
that are behind, and press toward the mark for the prize of our high 
calling in Christ, they imagined I wanted to drive them to the brink of 



Age 4 i.] Important Unpublished Manuscript. 185 



some horrible precipice, or into the jaws of some monster called Perfec- 
tion, in which notion they were possibly confirmed not only by Mr. 
Shirley's positive assertions, but by frequent hints thrown out by her 
ladyship herself upon the danger of that imaginary bugbear. Alas ! 
how needless it is to give charges against sinless Perfection to young 
men who believe no such thing is to be attained, and who live mostly 
under the power of the carnal mind. What must be the consequence if 
grace does not interpose ? What, but a settling upon the lees of nature 
and formality, and a singing of a soft requiem to the drowsy hearts of 
those who are not really alive to God ? What makes me think so, is 
the frequent opportunities I have had to observe that a word which may 
too indirectly countenance sin, by the craft and power of Satan and the 
prevalence of natural corruption, goes farther than twenty directly and 
powerfully thundered against it. \ 

" Again. The light of most Calvinists is such that they cannot believe\ 
a man knows anything of free grace who does not enter into all their 
sentiments. Of this, a moderate one gave me lately a particular instance, 
by telling me point blank, I was in a damnable heresy, and never knew 
anything of myself or of true grace, because I had said, sinners perish 
for resisting and quenching the Spirit of grace. Hence, I conclude, 
and not without a premise, that it would be as ridiculous in me to expect / 
the majority of students to follow my directions, as it would be to hope / 
that young men who have good eyes should follow a person whom they ? 
believe almost if not altogether blind. 

"Things appeared to me in this light, when the uneasiness of my lady 
occasioned by Mr. Wesley's Minutes showed itself. I admired her zeal 
for the grand truths of the Gospel. Appearances were for her, and I 
could not excuse Mr. Wesley's unguarded expressions, any more than 
my lady's great warmth against them ; her ladyship having mentioned 
again and again that they were horrible and abominable, and that she 
must burn against them, and at last added, that, whosoever in the 
College did not fully and without any evasion disavow them should not 
stay in her College, etc. Accordingly, an order came for the students 
and masters to write their sentiments upon them. I thought I would 
not lay that burden upon others without touching it myself, and, following 
the light in which I could see and trace Mr. Wesley's doctrines from a 
long acquaintance with his sentiments, I blamed the unguarded and 
not sufficiently explicit manner in which they were worded, but approving 
the doctrines themselves as agreeable to what appears to me the analogy 
of faith. All the College, I suppose, rose with one voice against them, 
which must make me appear strangely heterodox, if not altogether a 
heretic worse than Mr. Wesley. This consideration, together with my 
lady's repeated declaration that every student who did not disavow them 
should quit the College, gave me at last courage to do absolutely what 
I had done in a partial manner near a fortnight before, namely, to resign 
the office of Principal of the College, which I saw I could no longer 
discharge with honour, with a good ccnscience, or any probability of 
success, 



Wesley's Designated Successor. 



[1771. 



" If I know anything of my own heart, I can truly say, I have not 
taken this step from pique or chagrin, nor from any supposed unkindness 
in her ladyship or the students, whose undeserved regard and peculiar 
respect for me have made me feel the greatest reluctance to comply 
with what I esteem the order of the Lord and the explicit dictate of my 
own conscience, confirmed by the train of circumstances which I have 
mentioned. 

" My high esteem for her ladyship is not at all abated. My love to 
the students, and regard for the College are the same. Nay, I can 
truly say, my regard for them goads me away, as I see nothing but a 
scene of confusion, distraction, and jealousy if I stay. The whole of 
this affair appears to me to be from the Lord, and it is my sentiment, 
that, as the College has naturally been filled with Calvinists, is provi- 
dentially founded near a Calvinist academy in Wales, a Calvinist country, 
an itinerant ministry is to go forth from it to feed chiefly the Church of 
God of that sentimental denomination. In order to this, a moderate, 
lively Calvinist must superintend, under the noble foundress, and, as a 
token that her ladyship is not dissatisfied with my conduct, I humbly 
beg she would give me leave to recommend my successor to her. 

"Mr. Whitefield is dead; some of his forlorn congregation have 
already been blessed under the ministry of the students ; who is more 
proper to head them than he whom the religious world begins to call 
the young Whitefield, Mr. Rowland Hill ? His remarkable sufferings 
for Christ's sake entitle him to the honour of presiding over this work ; 
and I hope the Lord will make him willing to accept an office for which 
he seems to be so well fitted by his popularity and success. 

" If it be objected that he is young, I reply, he is older than Mr. 
Whitefield was when he set out upon his great errand, and that the 
warmth of his heart, the ripeness of his zeal, and the amazing steadiness 
of his conduct for years, under the greatest difficulty both at home and 
abroad, together with the many seals God has already given to His 
ministry in various parts of the kingdom, ought greatly to turn the scale 
in his favour. And, indeed, what is an old Saul to a young David ? 
And who deserves most the name and honour of a father ? He, or 
myself? Without hesitating, I answer Mr. Rowland Hill, who has 
perhaps begotten more children to God in one discourse than I have in 
all my poor labour these fourteen years." 

This long document is endorsed " Letter to Lady 
Huntingdon." It would be easy to make it the text for 
a long sermon ; but want of space forbids the attempt to 
do this. Besides, intelligent readers are quite competent to 
form just opinions respecting it. Suffice it to say, that it is 
of high importance, as containing, by far, the fullest account 
ever published of the reasons why Fletcher took a step 
which led to great events he never contemplated. Had 



Age 4i.] The Storm Breaking. 187 



he continued to be the Superintendent of the Trevecca 
College, it is probable that the Calvinian controversy 
would not have grown to such wide dimensions. That, 
however, is not a proof of imprudence on Fletcher's part ; 
for, as every one who knows the history of that contro- 
versy is well aware, it was impossible for the great 
religious movement of the last century to proceed without 
the doctrines in Wesley's Minutes being thoroughly ex- 
amined, discussed, and settled. 

Wesley preached his sermon on the death of Whitefield 
on November 18, 1770. Six weeks afterwards, it was re- 
spectfully attacked in the January number of the Calvinists' 
periodical, the Gospel Magazine. Two months later, the 
same magazine made a furious assault on Walter Sellon's 
" Defence of God's Sovereignty," stigmatizing it as " A mite 
of reprobate silver, cast into the Foundery, and coming out 
thence, bearing the impress of that pride, self-righteousness, 
and self-sufficiency, natural to men in their fallen unrenewed 
state." " This performance," continues the reviewer, " is ex- 
tolled to the very skies by the Arminians. It is calculated 
for their meridian, and well establishes the haughty system 
of their own works and faithfulness, in opposition to the 
grace of the Gospel, and the faithfulness of a covenant God, 
in the finished salvation of sinners by Jesus Christ." 

In May, the same periodical printed Wesley's " Minutes," 
and branded them as " the very doctrines of Popery, yea, of 
Popery unmasked." The number for the month of June 
contained an article of twelve pages, entitled, "A Comment 
or Paraphrase on the Extract from the Minutes of the Rev. 
Mr. Wesley, etc." The temper and the unfairness of the 
article may be judged by the paraphrase on the first 
Minute, " Take heed to your doctrine!' That is, remarks the 
commentator, — 

" Beware, in your preaching, of ascribing the whole and. sole glory 
of salvation, from first to last, to the free unmerited grace of God in 
Christ Jesus. Be cautious how you sink man below his dignity, rob 
him of his excellency, strip him of the power of His free-will and abilities 
to perform his part in the work of salvation, and so deprive him of all 
trust in himself, hope from himself, and boasting of himself ; for hence 
will be an end of self-seeking, self-righteousness, and self-soothing. 
Then would he sink into self-despair. Take heed to this," 



i88 



Wesley's Desig?iated Successor. 



[1771. 



Meanwhile, Fletcher wrote to Wesley as follows : — 

"Madeley, June 24, 1771 . 1 
" Dear Sir, — When I left Wales, where I had stood in the gap for 
peace, I thought my poor endeavours were not altogether vain. Lady- 
Huntingdon said she would write civilly to you, and desire you to explain 
yourself about your ' Minutes.' I suppose you have not heard from her, 
for she wrote me word, since then, that she believed she must not 
meddle in the affair. At least, that is what I made of her letter. Upon 
receiving yours from Chester, I cut off that part of it where you ex- 
pressed your belief of what is eminently called by us the doctrine of 
free grace, and sent it to the College, with a desire it might be sent 
to Lady Huntingdon. She has returned it to me, with a letter, in which 
she expresses the greatest disapprobation of it. The purport of her 
letter is, to charge you with tergiversation, and me with being the dupe 
of your impositions. She has also written in stronger terms to her 
College. 

" Things I hoped would have remained there ; but how am I surprised 
and grieved to see zeal borrowing the horn of discord, and sounding an 
alarm throughout the religious world against you. Mr. Hatton called 
upon me last night, and showed me a printed circular, which, I suppose, 
is, or will be, sent to the serious clergy and laity throughout the land. 
I have received none, as I have lost, I suppose, my reputation of being 
a ' real Protestant' by what I wrote upon your ' Minutes ' in Wales. 

" This is an exact copy of the printed letter— 

" ' Sir, — Whereas Mr. Wesley's Conference is to be held at Bristol, 
on Tuesday, the 6th of August next, it is proposed by Lady Huntingdon 
and many other Christian friends (real Protestants), to have a meeting 
at Bristol at the same time, of such principal persons, both clergy and 
laity, who disapprove of the underwritten ' Minutes ; ' and, as the same 
are thought injurious to the very fundamental -grmcv^les of Christianity, 
it is further proposed that they go in a body to the said Conference, and 
insist upon a formal recantation of the said Minutes ; and, in case of 
a refusal, that they sign and publish their protest against them. Your 
presence, Sir, on this occasion, is particularly requested; but, if it 
should not suit your convenience to be there, it is desired that you will 
transmit your sentiments on the subject to such persons as you think 
proper to produce them. It is submitted to you, whether it would not 
be right, in the opposition to be made to such a dreadful heresy, to 
recommend it to as many of your Christian friends, as well of the 
dissenters as of the Established Church, as you can prevail on to be 
there, the cause being of so public a nature. 

"'I am, Sir, your obedient servant,— WALTER SHIRLEY. 

" ' P.S. — Your answer is desired, directed to the Countess of Hunting- 
don ; or the Rev. Mr. Shirley; or John Lloyd, Esq., in Bath; or Mr. 



1 This letter is inserted in the " Life and Times of Wesley," where it 
was published for the first time. It is reproduced here, because 
Fletcher's life would not be complete without it. — L. T. 



Age 41.] 



Shirley* s Circular. 



189 



James Ireland, merchant, Bristol; or to Thomas Powis, Esq., at Ber- 
wick, near Shrewsbury; or to Richard Hill, Esq., at Hawkstone, near 
Whitchurch, Shropshire. Lodgings will be provided. Inquire at Mr. 
Ireland's, Bristol.' 

" I think it my duty, dear Sir, to give you the earliest intelligence of 
this bold onset, and to assure you that, upon the evangelical principles 
mentioned in your last letter to me, I, for one, shall be glad to stand 
by you and your doctrine to the last, hoping that you will gladly remove 
stumbling-blocks out of the way of the weak, and alter such expressions 
as may create prejudice in the hearts of those who are inclined to 
admit it. 

" I write to Mr. Shirley to expostulate with him, and to request him 
to call in his circular letter. He is the last man that should attack 
you. His sermons contain propositions much more heretical and anti- 
Calvinistical than your 'Minutes.' If my letters have not the desired 
effect, I shall probably, if you approve of them and correct them, make 
them public for your justification. 

"I find Mr. Ireland is to write to make you tamely recant without 
measuring swords, or breaking a pike with our real Protestants. I 
wrote to him also. 

" I am, dear Sir, your unworthy servant in the Gospel, 

"John Fletcher. 

" To the Rev. Mr. John Wesley, 

"At his Preaching House in Dublin, 
"Ireland." 

Lady Huntingdon did not write to Wesley, but he wrote 
a long and faithful letter to her, dated June 19, 1 77 1, in 
which he insisted that the doctrines he preached now were 
the same as he had preached for above thirty years. 1 

Shirley did not " call in his circular letter." It would 
have been more to the honour of himself and his friends 
had he done so ; for, when Wesley's Conference assembled 
on August 6, the response to it was ridiculous. Of all " the 
serious clergy and laity throughout the land," only Shirley 
himself, and the Rev. Cradock Glascott, and the Rev. Mr. 
Owen, ministers officiating in the Countess of Huntingdon's 
chapels, together with Messrs. Lloyd, Ireland, and Winter, 
and two students (!) from Trevecca College attended. After 
what had taken place, Wesley, without arrogance, might 
have disdained these insignificant self-elected deputies ; but 
he graciously allowed them to enter his Conference. First 



1 " Life and Times of Wesley," vol. iii., p. 93. 



190 Wesley's Designated Successor. 



[1771. 



of all, Wesley prayed ; then Shirley asked if the letters 1 01 
himself and the Countess of Huntingdon had been read to 
the Conference ; and, being answered in the negative, he 
asked leave to read them himself, which was granted. A 
long conversation followed, and then Shirley produced a 
written declaration which he wished the Conference to sign. 
Wesley examined it, and made some alterations, which 
Shirley says were "not very material;" and then Wesley 
and fifty-three of his itinerant preachers appended to it their 
signatures. The declaration was as follows : — 

"Whereas the doctrinal points in the Minutes of a Conference, held 
in London, August 7, 1770, have been understood to favour justification 
by works ; now the Rev. John Wesley and others assembled in Con- 
ference, do declare that we had no such meaning, and that we abhor 
the doctrine of Justification by Works as a most perilous and abomin- 
able doctrine : and, as the said Minutes are not sufficiently guarded in 
the way they are expressed, we hereby solemnly declare, in the sight 
of God, that we have no trust or confidence but in the alone merits of 
our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, for Justification or Salvation, either 
in life, death, or the day of judgment : and, though no one is a real 
Christian believer, (and consequently cannot be saved) who doth not 
good works, where there is time and opportunity, yet our works have no 
part in meriting or purchasing our salvation from first to last, either in 
whole or in part." 

This declaration being signed by Wesley and all the 
Itinerant Preachers present (except Thomas Olivers), Shirley 
was required " to make some public acknowledgment that 
he had mistaken the meaning of the 'Minutes.'" At first 
he hesitated, but, " a few days afterwards, sent Wesley the 
following message, with which," says Shirley, "he was very 
well pleased " : — 

" Mr. Shirley's Christian respects wait on Mr. Wesley. The declara- 
tion agreed to in Conference August 8, 1 771 , has convinced Mr. Shirley 
he had mistaken the meaning of the doctrinal points in the Minutes of 



1 The letter of the Countess, dated "August 2, 1771," in substance 
was an apology for the apparently presumptuous way in which she and 
her friends had proposed to invade Wesley's Conference ; accompanied 
with an excuse founded on the fact that they regarded Wesley's 
"Minutes," of 1770, as "repugnant to Scripture, the whole plan of 
man's salvation under the new covenant of grace, and also to the clear 
meaning of our Established Church, as well as to that of all other 
Protestant Churches." Shirley's letter was to the same effect. (See 
Shirley's " Narrative of the Principal Circumstances relative to the Rev 
Mr. Wesley's late Conference, held in Bristol, August 6, 1771.") 



Age 4i.] Fletcher s "First Check to Antinomianism" 191 



the Conference, held in London August 7, 1770 ; and he hereby wishes 
to testify the full satisfaction he has in the said declaration, and his 
hearty concurrence and agreement with the same." 

It might have been thought that here the fracas would 
have ended ; and so, perhaps, it would, had it not been for 
an incident which must now be mentioned. 

Fletcher had already written his " First Check to Anti- 
nomianism." It was finished on July 29, 1 and Wesley 
immediately put it into the hands of his printer, William 
Pine, of Bristol, to be printed and published; and the manu- 
script was being set up in type at the very time that Shirley 
and his friends were at Wesley's Conference. The Con- 
ference began on Tuesday, August 6. Wesley writes : — 

"We had more preachers than usual at the Conference, in con- 
sequence of Mr. Shirley's circular letter. At ten on Thursday morning, 
he came with nine or ten of his friends. We conversed freely for about 
two hours, and I believe they were satisfied that we were not so 'dreadful 
heretics ' as they imagined, but were tolerably sound in the faith." 2 

The next day, Friday, August 9, Shirley was informed 
that Fletcher's manuscript was being printed. Pie and his 
friends appealed to Wesley to stop the press. Mr. Ireland, 
in particular, who had already written to Fletcher an account 
of the preceding day's amicable proceedings, entreated Wesley 
to wait till he (Ireland) could receive an answer to his letter. 
He ventured to assure Wesley that if Fletcher were upon the 
spot he would suppress the publication ; and he himself 
offered to defray all the expense that had been incurred. 
Wesley answered, " I will consider it ; " and, at the same 
time, he told his visitors that " he had corrected all the tart 
expressions in " the manuscript. 3 



1 It is a notable fact that Wesley had spent the three previous days 
with Fletcher. Hence the following from Wesley's Journal : — - 

" 1 77 1 . Friday, July 26. I went on to Shrewsbury, where Mr. Fletcher 
met me. — Sunday, 28. I preached at Madeley, morning and afternoon. 
The church would not near contain the congregation ; but the window 
near the pulpit being open, those without could hear as well as those 
within. — Monday, 29. I went on to Worcester." 

Probably Wesley took Fletcher's manuscript away with him. 

2 Wesley's Journal. 

3 Shirley's "Narrative." 



192 



Wesley s Designated Successor. 



[1771. 



Wesley spent Saturday and Sunday in Bristol ; and then, 
on Monday, August 12, he "set out for Wales." Three 
days afterwards, Mr. Ireland received a letter from Fletcher, 
who wrote : — 

"I feel for poor dear Mr. Shirley, whom I have (considering the 
present circumstances) treated too severely in my 'Vindication of the 
Minutes.' My dear Sir, what must be done ? I am ready to defray, 
by selling to my last shirt, the expense of the printing of my Vindication, 
and suppress it. Direct me, dear Sir. Consult with Mr. Shirley and 
Mr. Wesley about the matter. Be persuaded I am ready to do every- 
thing that will be brotherly in this unhappy affair. ' ' 1 

Wesley having departed from Bristol, Mr. Ireland at once 
went to Mr. Pine, the printer, and showed him Fletcher's letter ; 
and the same evening Mr. Pine communicated its contents 
, to the Bristol preachers. The next morning, Friday, August 1 6, 
Mr. Ireland sent to the preachers a copy of Fletcher's letter ; 
and, in a letter from himself, told them that Fletcher "supposed 
the book was out ; but, even in that case, he wished it to 
be suppressed." Mr. Ireland entreated them to defer the 
publication till they had further authority from Fletcher 
and Wesley, " and engaged to be accountable for every 
consequence." 2 

While Mr. Ireland was making these strenuous efforts to 
suppress the publication, Wesley wrote to the Countess of 
Huntingdon as follows : — 

"1771. August 14. — When I received your ladyship's letter of the 
2nd inst., I immediately saw that it required an answer, only I waited 
till the hurry of Conference was over, that I might do nothing rashly. 
I know your ladyship would not servilely ' deny the truth ; ' neither 
would I ; especially that great truth, justification by faith, for which I 
have given up all my worldly hopes, my friends, my reputation ; yea, 
for which I have so often hazarded my life, and by the grace of God 
will do again. The principles established in the ' Minutes ' I apprehend 
to be no way contrary to this ; or to that faith which was once delivered 
to the saints. I believe whoever calmly considers Mr. Fletcher's letters 
will be convinced of this . I fear, therefore, ' zeal against those principles ' 
is no less than zeal against the truth, and against the honour of our Lord. 
The preservation of His honour appears so sacred to me, and has done 
for above these forty years, that I have counted, and do count, all things 



1 Shirley's "Narrative. 



2 Ibid. 



Age 41.] 



Shirley' s ' ' Narrative. ' ' 



193 



loss in comparison of it. But till Mr. Fletcher's printed letters are 
answered, I must think everything spoken against those ' Minutes ' is 
totally destructive of His honour, and a palpable affront to Him both 
as our Prophet and Priest, but more especially as our King. Those 
letters, therefore, which could not be suppressed without betraying the 
honour of our Lord, largely prove that the 'Minutes' lay no other 
foundation than that which is laid in Scripture, and which I have been 
laying, and teaching others to lay, for between thirty and forty years. 
Indeed, it would be amazing that God should at this day prosper my 
labours, as much if not more than ever, by convincing as well as con- 
verting sinners, if I was ' establishing another foundation, refiugnan* 
to the whole filan of man' s salvation under the covenant of grace, as 
well as the clear meaning of our Established Church and all other 
Protestant Chicrches.' This is a charge indeed ! But I plead, not 
guilty ; and tilf it is proved upon me, I must subscribe myself, my dear 
lady, your ladyship's affectionate but much injured servant, 

" John Wesley." 1 

Thus, by Wesley's firmness, Fletcher's manuscript, without 
any delay, was printed and published. Its title was, " A 
Vindication of the Rev. Mr. Wesley's Last Minutes : Occa- 
sioned by a circular printed Letter, inviting principal Persons, 
both Clergy and Laity, as well of the Dissenters as of the 
Established Church, who disapprove of those Minutes, to 
oppose them in a Body, as a dreadful Heresy : And designed 
to remove Prejudice, check Rashness, promote Forbearance, 
defend the Character of an eminent Minister of Christ, and 
prevent some important Scriptural Truths from being hastily 
branded as heretical. In Five Letters, to the Hon and 
Rev. Author of the Circular Letter. By a Lover of Quietness 
and Liberty of Conscience. Bristol : Printed by W. Pine, 
in Wine Street, 1 77 1 12 mo., 98 pp. 

The publication roused again the Hon. and Rev. Walter 
Shirley, who immediately prepared and published " A 
Narrative of the principal Circumstances relative to the Rev. 
Mr. Wesley's late Conference, held in Bristol, August the 6th, 
I 77 1, at which the Rev. Mr. Shirley, and others, his Friends, 
were present. With a Declaration then agreed to by Mr. 
Wesley, and Fifty-three of the Preachers in Connection with 
him. In a Letter to a Friend. By the Rev. Mr. Shirley, 
Bath: 1 77 1 ." 12 mo,, 24pp. 



\ Whitehead's "Life of Wesley," vol. ii., p. 350. 

13 



194 Wesley's Designated Successor, [1771 



Upon the whole, Mr. Shirley's " Narrative " was truthful, 
fair, and respectful. It is dated "Bath, September 12, 1 77 1." 
He apprised Fletcher of its contents, and of his intention to 
publish it ; and Fletcher, in reply, wrote the following letter, 
which completes the history of the commencement of the 
great Calvinistical controversy : — 

' ' Madeley, September 11, 1 77 1 . 

" Rev. and Dear Sir, — It is extremely proper, nay, it is highly 
necessary, that the public should be informed how much like a minister 
of the Prince of Peace, and a meek, humble, loving brother in the 
Gospel of Christ, you behaved at the Conference. Had I been there, 
I would gladly have taken upon me to proclaim these tidings of joy 
to the lovers of Zion's peace. Your conduct at that time of love is 
certainly the best excuse for the hasty step you had taken ; as my desire 
of stopping my ' Vindication,'' upon hearing of it, is the best apology I 
can make for my severity to you. 

"I am not averse at all, Sir, to your publishing the passages you 
mention out of my letters to Mr. Ireland. They show my peculiar love 
and respect for you, which I shall at all times think an honour ; and, 
at this juncture, shall feel a peculiar pleasure to see proclaimed to the 
world. They apologize for my calling myself 1 a lover of quietness,'' 
when I unfortunately prove a son of contention ; and they demonstrate 
that I am not altogether void of the fear that becomes an awkward, 
inexperienced surgeon, when he ventures to open a vein in the arm of 
a person for whom he has the highest regard. How natural is it for him 
to tremble, lest by missing the intended vein, and pricking an unseen 
artery, he should have done irreparable mischief instead of an useful 
operation ! 

"But while you do me the kindness of publishing those passages, 
permit me, Sir, to do Mr. Wesley the justice of informing him, I had 
also written to Mr. Ireland, that, ' whether my Letters were suppressed 
or not, the ' Minutes ' must be vindicated, — that Mr. Wesley owed it 
to the Church, to the real Protestants, to all his Societies, and to his 
own aspersed character, — and that, after all, the controversy did not 
seem to me to be so much whether the 'Minutes' should stand, as 
whether the Antinomian Gospel of Dr. Crisp 2 should prevail over the 
practical Gospel of Jesus Christ. 

?' I must also, Sir, beg leave to let my vindicated friend know, that, 



1 That there might be no misunderstanding between them, Fletcher, 
on the same day, sent Wesley "the substance, and almost the very 
words," of this letter to Shirley. 

2 The Rev. Tobias Crisp, D.D., a divine of the Church of England, 
born in London in 1600, and who died in 1643. He was educated at 
Eton, thence he removed to Cambridge, and afterwards to Oriel College, 
Oxford. At the age of twenty-seven, he was appointed Rector of Brink- 
worth, in Wiltshire. Early in life, he was a favourer of the doctrines of 



Age 4i.] Fletchers Letter to Shirley, 



195 



in the very letter where I so earnestly entreated Mr. Ireland to stop the 
publication of my Letters to you, and offered to take the whole expense 
of the impression upon myself, though I should be obliged to sell my 
last shirt to defray it, I added that, ' If they were published, I must look 
upon it as a necessary evil, or misfortune.'' Which of the two words I 
used I do not justly recollect : a misfortune for you and me, who must 
appear inconsistent to the world ; — you, Sir, with your Sermons, 1 and I with 
my Title-page ; and nevertheless necessary to vindicate misrepresented 
truth, defend an eminent minister of Christ, and stem the torrent of 
Antinomianism. 

"It may not be improper, also, to observe to you, Sir, that when I 
presented Mr. Wesley with my ' Vindication,' I begged he would correct 
it, and take away whatever might be unkind or too sharp : urging that 
though I meant no unkindness, I was not a proper judge of what I had 
written under peculiarly delicate and trying circumstances, as well as 
in a great hurry ; and did not, therefore, dare to trust either my pen, 
my head, or my heart. He was no sooner gone" (from Bristol) "than I 
sent a letter after him to repeat and urge the same request ; and he 
wrote me word, that he had 'expunged every tart expression.' If he 
has (for I have not yet seen what alterations his friendly pen has 
made) I am reconciled to the publication ; and that he has, I have 
reason to hope from the letters of two judicious London friends, who 
calmed my fears, lest I should have treated you with unkindness. 

"One of them says, ' I reverence Mr. Shirley for his candid acknow- 
ledgment of his hastiness in judging. I commend the Calvinists at 
the Conference for their justice to Mr. Wesley, and their acquiescence 
in the Declaration of the Preachers in connexion with him. But is 
that Declaration, however dispersed, a remedy adequate to the evil 
done, not only to Mr. Wesley, but to the cause and work of God ? 
Several Calvinists, in eagerness of malice, had dispersed their calumnies 
through the three kingdoms. A truly excellent person herself, 2 in 
her mistaken zeal, had represented him as a ftaftist unmasked, a 
heretic, an apostate. A clergyman of the first reputation informs me 
a Poem on his Afiostacy is just coming out. 3 Letters have been sent to 
every serious Churchman and Dissenter through the land, together 

Arminianism ; afterwards, he became the champion of Antinomianism. 
His sermons, in three volumes, were printed after his death. It is said 
that, though the tenets he embraced seem to be a plea for licentious- 
ness, he himself was remarkable for the purity and modesty of his 
manners. 

1 A few years ago, Shirley had published "Twelve Sermons, preached 
on several occasions," i2mo., 189 pp. 

2 Lady Huntingdon. 

3 This was published in the Gospel Magazine, in the same month as 
Wesley's Conference was held. It was signed "Cleon," and dated 
"London, June 17, 1771 Speaking of Wesley, "Cleon" says, — 

" Pride prompts him on, and Satan now has gained 
A conquest o'er perverted truth retained ; 
At best perverted, glaring now appears, 
The pride of Rome, the lie of num'rous years." 



1 96 Wesley's Designated Successor. [W- 



with the Gospel Magazine. Great are the shoutings, '''And now that 
he lieth let him rise up no more.'" This is all the cry. His dearest 
friends and children are staggered, and scarce know what to think. 
You, in your corner, cannot conceive the mischief that has been done, 
and is still doing. But your letters, in the hand of Providence, may 
answer the good ends you proposed by writing them. You have not 
been too severe to dear Mr. Shirley, moderate Calvinists themselves 
being judges, but very kind and friendly to set a good mistaken man 
right, and probably to preserve him from the like rashness as long as he 
lives. Be not troubled, therefore, but cast your care upon the Lord.' 

" My other friend says, * Considering what harm the Circular Letter 
has done, and what a useless satisfaction Mr. Shirley has given by his 
vague acknowledgment, it is no more than just and equitable that 
your Letters should be published.' 

" Now, Sir, as I never saw that ack?20wledgment, nor the softening 
corrections made by Mr. Wesley in my 'Vindication;' as I was not 
informed of some of the above-mentioned particulars when I was so 
eager to prevent the publication of my Letters ; and as I have reason 
to think that, through the desire of an immediate peace, the festering 
wound was rather skinned over than probed to the bottom, — all I can 
say about this publication is, what I wrote to our common friend, 
namely, that ' I must look upon it as a necessary evil.'' 

"I am glad, Sir, you do not direct your letter to Mr. Olivers, 1 who 
was so busy in publishing my ' Vindication ; ' for, by a letter I have just 
received from. Bristol, I am informed he did not hear how desirous I 
was to call if in, till he had actually given out, before a whole con- 
gregation, it would be sold. Besides, he would have pleaded with 
smartness that he never approved of a patched-up peace, — that he 
bore his testimony against it at the time it was made, — and that he had 
a personal right to produce my arguments, since both parties refused 
to hear his at the Conference. 

11 If your Letter is friendly, Sir, and you print it in the same size as 
my ' Vindication,' I shall gladly buy £\o worth of the copies, and order 
them to be stitched with my ' Vindication,' and given gratis to the pur- 
chasers of it ; as well to do you justice, as to convince the w r orld that 
we make a loving war ; and also to demonstrate how much I regard 
your respectable character, and honour your dear person. Mr. Wesley's 
heart is, I am persuaded, too full of brotherly love to deny me the 
pleasure of thus showing you how sincerely I am, Rev. and dear Sir, 
your obedient servant, 

"John Fletcher." 

The reader has now as full an account as can be given of 
the way in which the long and angry war between Wesley an 
Methodism and Calvinian Methodism was begun. It is 



1 Thomas Olivers, who, for several years, corrected proof sheets for 
Wesley. 



Age 4i.] Fletcher' 's Vindication of 'Wesley* 's Minutes. 197 



difficult to say, decidedly, who was to blame for it. Wesley 
had a perfect right — in fact, under existing circumstances, he 
was almost bound by duty — to publish his theological theses ; 
but it was unfortunate that, to use the words of himself and 
his fifty- three preachers, " they were not sufficiently guarded in 
the way they were expressed." 

The Countess of Huntingdon and her nephew, the Hon. 
and Rev. Walter Shirley, had a perfect right to take counsel 
with their Calvinian friends respecting Wesley's " Minutes ; " 
but it was offensive arrogance to propose to "go in a body 
to Wesley's Conference, and insist upon a formal recantation 
of the said Minutes? Wesley was under no obligation to 
either Lady Huntingdon or Walter Shirley ; and their issuing 
of the " Circular Letter " was pure impertinence, though, no 
doubt, they thought it a Christian duty. 

Fletcher had a perfect right to explain and vindicate 
Wesley's ' Minutes,' and to send Wesley his manuscript to 
be printed and published ; and Wesley had a perfect right 
to avail himself of this permission. 

Mr. Ireland had a perfect right to entreat Wesley's printer 
to delay the publication till he (Ireland) received an answer 
to the letter he had sent to Fletcher ; and Fletcher, though, 
perhaps, showing too much flexibility of purpose, displayed 
Christian kindness of the highest order in his reply ; but 
that reply arrived in Bristol too late, for Wesley had already 
left for Wales, and Wesley's editor had publicly announced 
that the " Vindication " would be published. Besides, Fletcher 
himself, within five weeks after the time when Wesley's Con- 
ference was held, changed his opinion, told Mr. Ireland that 
" the ' Minutes ' must be vindicated," and • informed Shirley 
himself that he was " reconciled to the publication " of his 
manuscript. 

Nothing more need be said. Indeed, all, in substance, is 
said that can be said ; and it only remains to notice the 
1 2 mo pamphlet of 98 pages, that gave such huge offence, 
and led to such serious consequences. Fletcher presents : — 



u I. A general view of the Rev. Mr. Wesley's doctrines. 

"II. An account of the commendable design of his ' Minutes.' 

"III. A vindication of the propositions which they contain, by 




Wesley 's Designated Szcccessor. 



[177 



arguments taken from Scripture, reason, and experience ; and by 
quotations from eminent Calvinist divines, who have said the same 
things in different words." 

On the first of these points, he writes : — 

" Mr. Wesley is accused of dreadful heresy ; and may not I, an old 
friend and acquaintance of his, be permitted to speak a word in his 
favour ? This step, I fear, will cost me my reputation (if I have any), 
and involve me in the same condemnation with him, whose cause, 
together with that of truth, I design to plead : but when humanity 
prompts, gratitude calls, and friendship excites ; when reason invites, 
justice demands, truth requires, and conscience summons ; he does not 
deserve the name of a Christian friend, who, for any consideration, 
hesitates to vindicate what he esteems truth, and to stand by an 
aggrieved friend, brother, and father. 

" i. For above these sixteen years, I have heard him frequently in 
his chapels, and sometimes in my church ; and I have familiarly con- 
versed and corresponded with him, and have often perused his numerous 
works in verse and prose ; and I can truly say, that, during all that 
time, I have heard him, upon every proper occasion, steadily maintain 
the total fall of man in Adam, and his utter inability to recover himself, 
or take one step towards his recovery, ' without the grace of God fir e- 
veitting him, that he may have a goad will, and working with him 
when he has that good will, ' 

"2. I must likewise testify that he faithfully points out Christ as the 
only way of salvation ; and strongly recommends faith as the only means 
of receiving Him, and all the benefits of His righteous life and meri- 
torious death ; and truth obliges me to declare, that he frequently 
expresses his detestation of the errors of modern Pharisees, who laugh 
at original sin, set up the power of fallen man, cry down the operations 
of God's Spirit, deny the absolute necessity of the blood and righteous- 
ness of Christ, and refuse Him the glory of all the good that may be 
found in Jew or Gentile. You will not without difficulty find in England, 
and perhaps in all the world, a minister who has borne more frequent 
testimonies, either from the pulpit or the press, against those dangerous 
errors. 

"3. The next fundamental doctrine of Christianity is that of holiness 
of heart and life ; and no one can here accuse Mr. Wesley of leaning 
to the Antinomian delusion, which 'makes void the law through' a 
speculative and barren 'faith' : on the contrary, he appears to be 
peculiarly set for the defence of practical religion ; for, instead of 
representing Christ as the minister of sin, he sets Him forth as a complete 
'Saviour from sin.' Not satisfied to preach holiness begun, he preaches 
finished holiness, and calls believers to such a degree of heart-purifying 
faith, as may enable them continually to 'triumph in Christ,' as being 
'made to them sanctif cation,' as well as 'righteousness.' This he 
sometimes calls ' full sanctification,' the state of fathers in Christ, or 



Age 4i.] Fletcher 's Vindication of 'Wesley 's Minutes \ 199 



' the glorious liberty of the children of God :' sometimes, a being 
'strengthened, stablished, and settled ; ' or 1 being rooted and grounded 
in love : ' but most commonly he calls it, ' Christian Perfection ; ' a 
word which, though used by the Apostles in the same sense, cannot be 
used by him without raising the pity or indignation of one half of the 
religious world : some make it the subject of their pious sneers and 
godly lampoons ; while others tell you roundly they ' abhor it above 
everything in the creation.' 

"4. But this is not all: he holds also general redemption, and its 
necessary consequences, which some account ' dreadful heresies.' He 
asserts, with St. Paul, that ' Christ, by the grace of God, tasted death 
for every man;' and this grace he calls 'free,' as extending itself 
freely to all. Nor can he help expressing his surprise at those pious 
ministers, who maintain that the Saviour keeps His grace, as they 
suppose He kept His blood, from the greatest part of mankind, and yet 
engross to themselves the title of 'preachers of free grace.' " 

"5. As a consequence of the doctrine of general redemption, Mr. 
Wesley lays down two axioms, of which he never loses sight in his^ 
preaching. The first is, that 1 All our salvation is of God in Christ,' 
and therefore of grace : all opportunities, invitations, inclination, and 
power to believe being bestowed upon us of mere grace, — grace most 
absolutely free. But he proceeds farther; for, secondly, he asserts, 
with equal confidence, that, according to the Gospel dispensation, 1 All 
our damnation is of ourselves,' by our obstinate unbelief and avoidable- 
unfaithfulness. He is persuaded the most complete system of divinity 
is that in which neither of those two axioms is superseded : it is bold 
and unscriptural to set up the one at the expense of the other." 

These extracts from Fletcher's first letter are important, 
as showing what Fletcher conceived to be Wesley's funda- 
mental doctrines ; and it must be borne in mind, that, 
Wesley having read and revised Fletcher's manuscript, 
Fletcher's conception is stamped with Wesley's own authority. 

Fletcher proceeds to explain and to defend Wesley's 
" Minutes," and to show they were greatly needed. He 
says : — 

" Mr. Wesley's design was to guard his preachers and their hearers 
against Antinomian principles and practices, which spread like wild-fire 
in some of his Societies ; where persons, who spoke in the most glorious 
manner of Christ, and their interest in His complete salvation, have 
been found living in the greatest immoralities, or indulging in the most 
unchristian tempers. Nor need I go far for a proof of this sad assertion. 
In one of his Societies, not many miles from my parish, a married man, 
who professed being in a state of justification and sanctification, 
growing wise above what is written, despised his brethren as legalists, 



200 



Wesley* s Designated Successor. 



[1771. 



and his teachers as persons not clear in the Gospel. He instilled his 
principles into a serious young woman ; and what was the consequence ? 
Why, they talked about ' finished salvation in Christ,' and 'the absurdity 
of perfection in the flesh,' till a perfect child was conceived and born ; 
and, to save appearances, the woman swore it to a travelling man that 
cannot be heard of. Thus, to avoid legality, they plunged into hypocrisy, 
fornication, adultery, perjury, and the depth of ranterism. Is it not hard 
that a minister should be traduced as guilty of dreadful heresy for trying 
to put a stop to such dreadful practices ? And is it not high time that 
he should cry to all that regard his warnings, ' Take heed to your 
doctrine ' ? " 

Fletcher then proceeds to give a deplorable picture of many 
of the professing Christians of the age, which, it is to be 
hoped, was too darkly drawn, though it is difficult to prove 
it was. The following extract shows that many of the 
Methodists were not better than their neighbours, and that 
it was of paramount importance that Wesley's preachers 
should take heed to their doctrine : — 

" Mr. Wesley has many persons in his Societies, (and would to God 
there were none in ours !) who profess they were justified or sanctified 
in a moment ; but, instead of trusting in the living God, so trust in 
what was done in that moment, as to give over taking up their cross 
daily, and watching unto prayer with all perseverance. The conse- 
quences are deplorable : they slide back into the spirit of the world ; 
and their tempers are no more regulated by the meek, gentle, humble 
'love of Jesus. Some inquire with the heathens, What shall we eat, 
and what shall we drink to please ourselves ? Others evidently love 
the world ; lay up treasures on earth; or ask, Wherewith shall we 
be fashionably clothed ? Therefore, the love of the Father is not in 
them. And not a few are led captive by the devil at his will: influenced 
by his unhappy suggestions, they harbour bitterness, malice, and revenge: 
none is in the right but themselves, and 'wisdom shall die with them.' 

"Now, Sir, Mr. Wesley cannot but fear it is not well with persons 
who are in any of these cases : though everybody should join to extol 
them as 'dear children of God,' he is persuaded that Satan has beguiled 
them, as he did Eve ; and he addresses them, as our Lord did the angel 
of the church of Sardis, — ' I know thy works, that thou hast a name, 
that thou livest; and art dead,* or dying : 'Repent, therefore, and 
strengthen the things which remain, that are ready to diej for I 
have not fouitd thy works perfect before God. ' ' ' 

When it is remembered that Fletcher's manuscript was 
read and revised by Wesley, before it was printed, the fore- 
going description of " many persons" in Wesley's Societies is 
possessed of more than ordinary interest. Only ten years 



Age 4i.] Fletcher 's Vindication of "Wesley 's Minutes. 201 



had elapsed since the great revival of Christian perfection in 
those Societies, and yet such was the judgment pronounced 
by Fletcher, and which Wesley sanctioned ! 

After explaining and defending all the doctrines contained 
in Wesley's " Minutes," Fletcher concludes his fourth letter 
as follows :- — 

" Thus, Sir, have I looked out for the heresy, the dreadful heresy of 
Mr. Wesley's ' Minutes,' by bringing all the propositions they contain 
to the touchstone of Scripture and common sense ; but, instead of 
finding it, I have found the very marrow of the Gospel of Christ. I 
have showed that the 'Minutes' contain nothing but what is truly scrip- 
tural; and nothing but what the best Calvinist divines have themselves, 
directly or indirectly, asserted; except, perhaps, the sixth proposition con- 
cerning the merit of works ; and, with respect to this, I hope I have demon- 
strated, upon rational and evangelical principles, that Mr. Wesley, far 
from bringing in a damnable heresy, has done the Gospel justice, and 
Protestantism service, by candidly giving up an old prejudice, equally 
contrary to Scripture and good sense, — a piece of bigotry which has 
long hardened the papists against the- doctripe of salvation by the merit 
of Christ, and has added inconceivable strength to the Antinomian 
delusion among us. 

One difficulty remains, and that is, to account for your attacking 
Mr. Wesley, though you could not wound him without stabbing yourself. 
Reserving my reflections upon this amazing step for another letter, 

" I remain your astonished servant in the bonds of a peaceful Gospel, 

"J. Fletcher." 

As here indicated, the fifth and last letter contained that 
which most offended Shirley. In his " Narrative," Shirley 
remarks : — 

" Mr. Wesley assured us he had corrected all the tart expressions 
in them" (that is, in Fletcher's Letters). " Alas ! Qualia verba, quce 
facta / Whether there are no tart expressions in the Letters, let every 
one that hath seen them judge. But, perhaps, this learned gentleman 
distinguishes between the tart and the bitter. If all the tart expres- 
sions are corrected, I am sure there are enough of the- bitter left. 

"As to the Letters themselves, I shall have 'the author's' pardon 
for noticing two particular charges against me. 

" 1. I am supposed to want candour; as if I had put a forced con- 
struction on the ' Minutes,' in order to bring Mr. Wesley in guilty. 
Mr. Fletcher has attempted a ' vindication ' of them ; and, by breaking 
them into sentences and^half-sentences, and refining upon each of these 
detached particles,, hg. has dpne more than I could have expected, even 
from his great abilities, in giving a new turn to the whole. But, after 
reading his learned and elaborate 'Vindication,' when I cast my eye 



202 



Wesley } s Designated Successor. 



[1771. 



over the ' Minutes,' and consider the whole as it stands in context, I 
must own, I am just where I was: nothing but the 'Declaration' could 
ever convince me that justification by works was not maintained and 
supported by the ' Minutes.' 

"2. The charge of inconsistency is supported by quotations from my 
sermons. To this, I beg leave to observe, that the passages quoted are 
not altogether in point ; neither do they maintain justification by works 
in such direct and express terms as the ' Minutes ' appear to do. I must, 
however, own that they savour too strongly of mysticism and free-will ; 
and all I can say, on my behalf in this respect, is, that they were 
written many years ago, at a time when I had more zeal than light ; 
that my present ministry, as well as my present way of thinking, is very 
different ; and that I have frequently expressed my disapprobation of 
those sermons, nay wished they had been burnt." 

Shirley was nettled ; and, after the imperious arrogance dis- 
played in his "Circular Letter," he deserved to be. Fletcher's 
fifth and last letter is caustical ; but not more so than the 
occasion justified. The following is extracted from it : — 

"Hon. and Rev. Sir, — Having vindicated both some important 
doctrines of the Gospel, and an eminent servant of Christ from the 
charge of dreadful heresy, I will now take the liberty of a friend to 
expostulate a little with you. 

"When Brutus, among other senators, rushed upon Caesar, the vener- 
able general said, 'Art thou also among them ? Even thou, my son ?' 
May not Mr. Wesley address you, Sir, in the same words, and add, 
' If a body of men must be raised to attack me, let some zealous follower 
of Dr. Crisp, some hot-headed vindicator of reprobation and eternal 
justification blow the trumpet, and put himself at their head ; but let it 
not be you, who believe with me that we are moral agents ; that God is 
love ; that Jesus tasted death for every man ; and that the Holy Spirit 
shall not always strive with sinners. If you do not regard my reputa- 
tion, consider at least your own, and expose me not as a heretic for 
advancing propositions, the substance of which you have avowed before 
the sun.' 

"But had those propositions, at length, appeared to you unsound, 
yea, and had you never maintained them yourself, should you not, as a 
Christian and a brother, have wrote to Mr. Wesley, acquainted him 
with your objections, and desired him to solve them and explain him- 
self, or you should be obliged publicly to expose him ? 

"Was this condescension more than was due from you, Sir, and our 
other friends, to a grey-headed minister of Christ, an old general in the 
armies of Emmanuel, a father who has children capable of instructing 
even masters in Israel, and one whom God made the first and principal 
instrument of the late revival of internal religion in our Church ? 

" Instead of this friendly method, as if you were a Barak, commanded 
by the Lord God of Israel, you call together the children of Nafihthali 



Age 41.J Fletcher s Vindication of Wesley's Minutes. 203 



and Zebulun : you convene, from England and Wales, clergy and laity, 
Churchmen and Dissenters, to meet you at Bristol, where they are, it 
seems, to be entertained in good and free quarters. And for what 
grand expedition ? Why, on a day appointed, you are to march up 
in a body, not to attack Sisera and his iron chariots, but an old Caleb, 
who, without meddling with you, quietly goes on to the conquest of 
Canaan ; not to desire, in a friendly manner, after a fair debate of every 
proposition that appears dangerous, and, upon previous conviction, that 
what is exceptionable may be given up ; but to do what I think was 
never done by nominal, much less by real Protestants. O let it not be 
told in Rome, lest the sons of the Inquisition rejoice ! This mixed, this 
formidable body is to insist upon Mr. Wesley and the preachers in his 
connexion, formally recanting their 'Minutes,' as appearing injurious 
to the very fundamental fir indoles of Christianity , and being dread- 
fully heretical. And this, astonishing ! without the least inquiry made 
into their meaning and design, without a shadow of authority from our 
superiors in Church or State, without an appeal to the law ajtd to the 
testimony, without form of process, without judge or jury, without so 
much as allowing the poor heretics (who are condemned six weeks 
before they can possibly be heard) to answer for themselves ! 

"How could you suppose, Sir, that Mr. Wesley and the preachers 
who assemble with him are such weak men, as tamely to acknowledge 
themselves heretics upon your iftse dixit ? Suppose Mr. Wesley took 
it in his head to convene all the divines that disapprove the extract of 
Zanchius, 1 to go with him in a body to Mr. Toplady's chapel, and 
demand a formal recantation of that performance as heretical ; yea, to 
insist upon it, before they had ' measured swords or broken a pike 
together,' would not the translator of Zanchius laugh at him, and ask 
whether he thought to frighten him by his protests, or bully him into 
orthodoxy ? 

" O, Sir, have we not fightings enough without, to employ all our 
time and strength ? Must we also declare war and promote fightings 
within ? Must we catch at every opportunity to stab one another, be- 
cause the livery of truth which we wear is not turned up in the same 
manner ? What can be more cruel than this ? What can be more 
cutting to an old minister of Christ, than to be traduced as a dreadful 
heretic, in printed letters sent to the best men in the land, yea, through 
all England and Scotland, and signed by a person of your rank and 
piety ? To have things that he knows not, that he never meant, laid 
to his charge, and dispersed far and near ? While he is gone to a 
neighbouring kingdom, 2 to preach Jesus Christ, to have his friends 



1 In 1769, Toplady published "The Doctrine of Absolute Predestina- 
tion Stated and Asserted. Translated, in great measure, from the 
Latin of Jerome Zanchius; with some Account of his Life prefixed." 
8vo. 134 pp. An impious production, in the garb of piety. 

2 Wesley was in Ireland from March 24 to July 22, 1 77 1 . It was 
during this period that Shirley sent forth his offensive " Circular 
Letter." 



204 Wesley's Designated Successor. [1771- 



prejudiced, his foes elevated, and the fruit of his extensive ministry at 
the point of being blasted ? Put yourself in his place, Sir, and you will 
see that the wound is deep and reaches the very heart. 

"Our Elijah 1 has lately been translated to heaven. Grey-headed 
Elisha is yet awhile continued upon earth. And shall we make a hurry 
and noise, to bring in railing accusations against him with more 
success ? Shall the sons of prophets, shall even children in grace and 
knowledge, openly traduce the venerable seer and his abundant labours ? 
When they see him run upon his Lord's errands, shall they cry, not, 
1 Go up, thou bald head' but, ' Go up, thou heretic'? O Jesus of 
Nazareth, Thou rejected of men, Thou Who wast once called a deceiver 
of the people, suffer it not ; lest the raging bear of persecution come 
suddenly out of the wood upon those sons of discord, and tear them in 
pieces." 

Remembering the confidential and warm friendship that 
had existed between Fletcher and the Countess of Hunting- 
don and her nephew, Walter Shirley, it must be admitted 
that these " expostulations " were pungent ; but they were 
provoked by the arrogance of the offenders. It is true, as 
already stated, that, on the evening before Wesley's Con- 
ference assembled, her ladyship and Shirley wrote letters to 
Wesley containing half-hearted apologies for their " arbitrary 
way of proceeding " in the " Circular Letter." " It must be 
acknowledged," said Shirley, " that, upon the whole, the 
Circular Letter was too hastily drawn up and improperly 
expressed ; and, therefore, for the offensive expressions in it, 
we desire we may be hereby understood to make every suit- 
able submission to you, Sir, and to the gentlemen of the 
Conference." 2 The apology was proper ; but it was not 
sufficient. The " Circular Letter," branding Wesley as a 
dreadful heretic, had been sent to a large number of " prin- 
cipal persons, both clergy and laity," throughout the three 
kingdoms ; whereas the letters of the Countess and her 
nephew were private ones, addressed only to W r esley and 
his preachers. Moreover, the apology was accompanied with 
a threat. 

"I cannot but wish," wrote Shirley, "that the recantation of the 
Circular Letter may prevail as an example for the recantation of the 
'Minutes.' If I should be unhappily disappointed in this respect, I 



1 Whitefield, who died September 30, 1770. 

2 Shirley's "Narrative." 



Age 41.] 



An Apology. 



205 



shall feel myself bound in conscience to yield my public testimony 
against such doctrines as these, which appear to me subversive of the 
fundamentals of Christianity." 1 

And, once more, the apology, such as it was, was sent 
too late, for Fletcher had already written his " Vindication " 
of Wesley's "Minutes;" the manuscript had been sent to 
Wesley, and Wesley had revised it, and committed it to 
the press. 

The war was begun, and we must follow it to its ter- 
mination, so far as Fletcher is concerned ; for it is impos- 
sible, in a work like this, to notice all the pamphlets that 
were published. Those who wish for further information 
may turn to the " Life and Times of Wesley." 



1 Shirley's "Narrative." 



206 



Wesley's Designated Successor, 



[1771. 



CHAPTER IX. 

SECOND CHECK TO A NTINOMIA NISM 
1771. 

WESLEY'S " Minutes " and Shirley's " Circular Letter " 
created a commotion. The Rev. Walter Sellon had 
recently published his " Church of England Vindicated from 
the Charge of Absolute Predestination ; as it is stated and 
asserted by the Translator of Jerome Zanchius " [Toplady] 
" in his Letter to the Rev. Dr. Nowell. Together with some 
Animadversions on his Translation of Zanchius, his Letter 
to the Rev. Mr. John Wesley, and his Sermon on 1 Tim. 
i. 10." This not over-courteous publication was reviewed 
in the August number of the Gospel Magazine for 1 77 1 ; 
and, no doubt, the review had been read by the gentlemen 
who proposed to invade Wesley's Conference. It began as 
follows : — 

" A composition of low scurrility and illiberal abuse, for which this 
author and his coadjutors are remarkable. Not one Calvinist who comes 
in his way escapes. He is so much given up to slander and defamation, 
that he can no more refrain from defaming even the dead than from 
slandering the living." 

Its last paragraph was the following ; and these two 
citations will enable the reader to form an opinion of the 
whole : — ■ 

" When we meet with erroneous systems set up in opposition to the 
Word of God, we speak our mind freely of them, and aim to show the 
dangerous tendency of them. But no sooner do we touch the cobweb 
system of self-righteous Pharisees, but they cry out, with their brethren 
of old to our Lord, 'Thou reproachest us also.' We cannot aim to 
dissect and expose their opinions, but they cry -out of slandering their 
persons, and ' Oh, you have no love to Mr. John ! ' God bless Mr. 



Age 41] Letters in the " Gospel Magazine" 207 



John ! But who is Mr. John ? Is he the standard of truth, the pinnacle 
of orthodoxy, the touchstone by which truth is to be tried and known ? 
What is Mr. John ? What is Mr. Walter ? Men, frail men, and 
miserable sinners like ourselves. All that we say of them is, As men, 
we love them ; as miserable sinners, we wish their salvation ; as fellow- 
creatures, we would not hurt a hair of their heads ; whatever is in our 
power to do them good, we would cheerfully minister unto them." 

In the September number of the same periodical, there 
was a letter, signed "Simplex," and dated "August 3, 1 77 1 , 
From the Neighbourhood of the Foundery," as follows : — 

" Sir, — I have just read your last number, and am amazed at the 
Declaration in it, as made by Mr. Wesley and his friends, at the late 
Conference at Bristol. I am amazed at the wisdom of that great man 
that he should devise a Declaration 1 couched in terms so ambiguous as 
to satisfy his opponents, whilst, in reality, it denies not one tittle clearly 
asserted in the ' Minutes ; ' and I am amazed at gentlemen, who might 
have been acquainted with the unfathomable policy of that dubious 
divine, not being more upon their guard than to have been put off by 
such an unmeaning confession. 

" Since the Conference, and, of course, since the making of this 
Declaration, Mr. Fletcher has published a very warm, and not ill- 
written 'Vindication of the Minutes,' which, from his intimacy with 
Mr. Wesley, evidently shows that the gentleman in question never 
meant to recant what he had declared in the 'Minutes ' when he signed 
the Declaration. 2 

" What can we think of this ? You ask, What can we say to this? 
Why, gentlemen, you may say that the fox has had sagacity enough to 
elude his hunters. Or, in other words, that Mr. Wesley is, what I 
always took him to be, a very wise man. 

" Does this tend to clear up the affair ? Yes. Taken in its connec- 
tion with Fletcher's 'Vindication of the Minutes,' it very plainly clears 
it up to every man ; and shows that however these gentlemen may 
abhor the doctrine of justification by the merit of works, as most 
perilous and abominable, they are determined to abide by the doctrine 
of justification by works as a condition, which is all that is clearly 
expressed in the 'Minutes.' If Cranmer and his brethren had drunk 
half as deep into the spirit of Ignatius," [Loyala !] "they had never 
been brought to the stake for their doctrine ; but might even have out- 
witted the eagle-eyed Bishops of London and Winchester." 



1 This is a calumny. The Declaration was not drawn up by Wesley, 
but by Shirley. "Wesley," says Shirley, "made some, not very 
material, alterations in it." 

2 Another misrepresentation ; for Fletcher's manuscript was com- 
mitted to the press before the Declaration was signed. 



2o8 Wesley* s Designated Successor. [1771 



Another communication by " Simplex " must be noticed. 
Like his former letter, it was printed in the Gospel Magazine. 
It was dated " From the Neighbourhood of the Foundery, 
October 9, 1 7 7 1 and was addressed "To the Rev. Mr. 
Wesley, Mr. Sellon, Mr. Fletcher, and Mr. Olivers." The 
following are extracts from it : — 

" Mr. Wesley is now an old man, and, according to the course of 
nature, must in a little time have done with a lying world. Let him, 
like an honest man, a Christian, that has heaven in his eye, and a 
sense of the Divine presence upon his heart, tell us plainly whether he 
really thinks that his continuance in the love of God, and the exercise 
of faith, is owing to his own good management, or to the sovereignty 
and freeness of the love of God and agency of the Holy Ghost ? " 

The temper of this production is painfully displayed in its 
concluding paragraph : — 

" Should any reply be made to this letter, and might I be indulged 
with liberty to choose my correspondent, I would most earnestly depre- 
cate having anything to do with the Reverend Mr. Walter Sellon, as I 
am no adept in scolding, and am sorry to see the name of a Christian 
minister prefaced to such foul and futile productions as those of Mr. 
Sellon' s pen. Mr. Fletcher's pen is indeed more cleanly, but every 
whit as unfair ; and him I object to because he is apt to exclaim against 
his opponents as enemies to Christian peace, even when he himself does 
what he can to stab their reputation to the heart. He is very apt 
grievously to complain of ill-usage from others, when, at the same time, 
like a madman, he himself keeps flinging abroad firebrands, arrows, 
and death amongst those who differ from him. Mr. Olivers should be 
my man, if in future he will guard against shocking common decency, 
as he has done in his letter to Mr. Toplady, where he is pleased to call 
Mr. Hervey's admirable letters to Mr. Wesley scurrilous : which in- 
decency, although borrowed indeed from Mr. Walter Sellon, must 
needs have an influence fatal to Master Thomas Olivers' credit as a 
writer. As to the Rev. Mr. Wesley himself, I do not expect that he 
can spare so much time as to give a satisfactory answer to my querulous 
epistle, as it will require his being more explicit than he has hitherto 
accustomed himself to be." 

Enough has been said to show the bitterness of feeling 
which had already sprung up against Fletcher (to say nothing 
of Wesley, Sellon, and Olivers), and that it was not surprising 
he was induced to defend himself against such infamous 
attacks as those of " Simplex " and his Calvinian friends. 

Meanwhile, Shirley was passing through the press his 



Age 42]. 



Unpublished Letter. 



209 



" Narrative of the Principal Circumstances relating to the 
Rev. Mr. Wesley's late Conference, held in Bristol August the 
6th, 1 77 1 " (8 vo., 24 pp.) Fletcher refers to this in the 
following extract from an unpublished letter addressed to 
Joseph Benson, and kindly lent by Mr. G. J. Stevenson : — 

1 * Madeley, August 24, 1 77 1. 

"My Dear Friend, — How much water may rush out of a little 
opening! What are our dear lady's jealousies come to? Ah, poor 
College ! They are without a master, but not without a mistress. Their 
conduct and charges of heresy stirred me up to write in defence of the 
' Minutes.' The pamphlet is gone abroad unseasonably in its present 
dress. The toga would now suit it, but it wears the chlamys. By this 
means, the voice of the arguments will be lost in the cry of treachery. 

" I received this morning a most kind letter from Mr. Shirley, whom 
I now pity much. He will pass by me ; but I fear Mr. Olivers will have 
some cutting lashes. Mr. Shirley is gone to Wales, probably to consult 
what to do in the present case. What a world ! Methinks I dream 
when I reflect that I have written on controversy ; the last subject I 
thought I should have meddled with. I expect to be smartly taken in 
hand and soundly drubbed for it. Lord, prepare me for it, and for every- 
thing that may make me cease from man, and above all from your 
unworthy friend, 

"J. Fletcher. 

"P.S. My kindest love to Mr. Mather. 1 I hope you are happy in 
each other's company. May you be both blessed, as being one heart, 
and one soul, and colleagues in Jesus ! " 

Instead of inflicting on Thomas Olivers what Fletcher 
calls u some cutting lashes," Shirley treated the sturdy Welsh- 
man with forbearance ; and if he used severity at all, not 
Wesley's itinerant, but the Vicar of Madeley was his victim. 

Fletcher immediately prepared a reply to Shirley's " Nar- 
rative ;" and, before the year was ended, published it, 
with the title, "A Second Check to Antinomianism ; occa- 
sioned by a Late Narrative, in Three Letters to the Hon. 
and Rev. Author. By the Vindicator of the Reverend Mr. 
Wesley's Minutes." 12 mo, 120 pp. This "Second Check," 
like the former one, was revised by Wesley, 2 and, therefore, 
was issued with his approval. 

1 Mr. Mather and Mr. Benson were now stationed in Wesley's London 
Circuit. 

2 See "The Second Part of the Fifth Check to Antinomianism," p. \i\ 
First Edition. 

14 



2 to Wesley's Designated Successor, [1771 



Fletcher's first letter to Shirley begins as follows : — 

"In my last private communication, I observed, Rev. Sir, that, if 
your ' Narrative ' was kind, I would buy a number of copies, and give 
them gratis to the purchasers of my book, that they might see all you 
can possibly produce in your own defence, and do you all the justice 
your proper behaviour at the Conference deserves. But, as it appears 
to me there are some important mistakes in that performance, I neither 
dare recommend it absolutely to my friends, nor wish it, in the religious 
world, the full success you desire. 

" I do not complain of its severity; on the contrary, considering the 
sharpness of my fifth letter, I gratefully acknowledge it is kinder than 
I had reason to expect. But permit me to tell you, Sir, I look for justice 
to the scriptural arguments I advance in defence of truth, before I look 
for kindness to my insignificant person, and could be much sooner 
satisfied with the former, than with the latter alone. As I do not 
admire the fashionable method of advancing general charges without 
supporting them by particular proofs, I shall take the liberty of pointing 
out some mistakes in your ' Narrative,' and, by that means, endeavour 
to do justice to Mr. Wesley's ' Declaration,' your own ' Sermons,' my 
1 Vindication,' and, above all, to the cause of practical religion." 

Fletcher then proceeds to quote numerous texts of Scrip- 
ture in support of the doctrine of a second justification by 
works, and argues that it "will rouse Antinomians out of their 
carnal security, stir up believers to follow hard after holiness, 
and reconcile fatal differences among Christians, and seeming 
contradictions in the Scripture." 

In sundry passages he treats the Antinomians with deserved 
severity ; but. in a long foot-note, observes : — 

" I beg I may not be understood to level the following paragraphs, 
or any part of these letters, at my pious Calvinist brethren. God knows 
how deeply I reverence many, who are immovably fixed in, what some 
call, the doctrines of grace ; how gladly (as conscious of their genuine 
conversion and eminent usefulness) I would lie in the dust at their feet 
to honour our Lord in His dear members ; and how often I have thought 
it a peculiar infelicity to dissent from such excellent men, with whom I 
wanted both to live and die, and with whom I hope soon to reign for 
ever. 

"As these real children of God lament the bad use Antinomians 
make of their principles, I hope they will not be offended if I bear my 
testimony against a growing evil, which the}^ have frequently opposed 
themselves. While the Calvinists guard the foundation against 
Pharisees, they will, I hope, allow the Re7no?istrants to guard the 
superstructure against Antinomians. If in doing these good offices 
to the Church., we find ourselves obliged to bear a little hard upon the 



Age 42.] Fletcher' 's " Second Check to A?itinomianism.' >i 211 



peculiar sentiments of our opposite friends, let us do it in such a manner 
as not to break the bonds of peace and brotherly kindness ; so shall 
our honest reproof become matter of useful exercise to that love which 
thi?iketh no evil, hopeth all things, rejoiceth even in the galling 
truth, and is neither quenched by many waters, nor damped by any 
opposition." 

In his second letter, Fletcher protests against Shirley 
recanting the doctrines contained in his published sermons, 
and concludes as follows : — 

" I assure you, Sir, I do not love the warlike dress of the Vindicator, 
any more than David did the heavy armour of Saul. With gladness, 
therefore, I cast it aside to throw myself at your feet, and protest to 
you, that, though I thought it my duty to write to you with the utmost 
plainness , frankness , and honesty, the design of doing it with bitterness 
never entered my heart. However, for every c bitter expression ' that 
may have dropped from my sharp, vindicating pen, I ask you pardon ; 
but it must be iii general, for neither friends nor foes have yet particu- 
larly pointed out to me 07ie such expression. 

" You condescend, Rev. Sir, to call me your 'learned friend.' Learn- 
ing is an accomplishment I never pretended to ; but your friendship 
is an honour I shall always highly esteem, and do at this time value 
above my own brother's love. Appearances are a little against me : I 
feel I am a thorn in your flesh ; but I am persuaded it is a necessary 
one, and this persuasion reconciles me to the thankless and disagreeable 
part I act, I can assure you, my dear Sir, I love and honour you, as 
truly as I dislike the rashness of your well-meant zeal. The motto I 
thought myself obliged to follow was, ' E bello pax ; ' but that which I 
delight in is, ' In bello pax.' May we make them harmonize till we 
learn war and polemic divinity no more ! 

" If in the meantime we offend our weak brethren, let us do something 
to lessen the offence till it is removed. Let us show them we make 
war without so much as shyness. Should you ever come to the next 
county, as you did last summer, honour me with a line, and I shall 
gladly wait upon you, and show you (if you permit me) the way to my 
pulpit, where I shall think myself highly favoured to see you ' secure 
the foundation,' and hear you enforce the doctrine of justification by 
faith, which you fear we attack. And should I ever be within thirty 
miles of the city where you reside, I shall go to submit myself to you, 
and beg leave to assist you in reading prayers for you,^ or giving the 
cup with you. Thus shall we convince the world how controversy may 
be conscientiously carried on without interruption of brotherly love ; 
and I shall have the peculiar pleasure of testifying- to you in person 
how sincerely I am, 

" Honoured and dear Sir, 
"Your submissive and obedient servant, in the bond of a practical 
Gospel, 

"J. Fletcher." 



212 



Wesley's Designated Successor. [1771. 



The third letter, to a large extent, is historical, and shows, 
with terrific faithfulness, that not a few of the so-called 
evangelical ministers and churches of a hundred years ago 
were far from what they should have been, and that Wesley's 
"Minutes" and Fletcher's "Checks" were greatly needed. 
Fletcher writes : — 

" For some years, I have suspected there is more imaginary than 
unfeigned faith in most of those who pass for believers. With a 
mixture of indignation and grief, have I seen them carelessly follow the 
stream of corrupt nature, against which they should have manfully 
wrestled. When they should have exclaimed against their Antino- 
mianism, I have heard them cry out against the legality of their wicked 
hearts ; which, they said, still suggested they were to do something in 
order to salvation. Glad was I, therefore, when I had attentively con- 
sidered Mr. Wesley's 'Minutes,' to find they were levelled at the very 
errors, which gave rise to an evil I had long lamented in secret, but 
had wanted courage to resist and attack." 

" Do not imagine, Rev. Sir, I cry up God's law, to drown the late 
cries of heresy and apostacy. I appeal to matter of fact and to your 
own observations. Consider the religious world, and say if 'Anti- 
nomianism ' is not, in general, a motto better adapted to the state of 
professing congregations, societies, families, and individuals, than 
' Holiness unto the Lord' 

"Begin with congregations, and cast your eyes upon the hearers. 
In general, they have curious 'itching ears' and 1 will not endure 
sound doctrine.'' They say they/ will have nothing but Christ;' and 
who could blame them if they would have Christ in all His offices ? 
Christ, with all His parables and sermons, cautions and precepts, 
reproofs and expostulations, exhortations and threatenings ? Who 
would find fault with them, if they would have Christ with His poverty 
and self-denial, His reproach and cross, His spirit and graces, His 
prophets and apostles, His plain apparel and mean followers ? But, 
alas ! it is not so. They will have what they please of Christ, and 
that too as they please. They admire Him in one chapter, and 
know not what to make of Him in another. If He asserts His 
authority as a Lawgiver, they are ready to treat Him with as little 
.ceremony as they do Moses. If He says, 'Keep my commandments, 
I am a King ;' like the Jews of old, they rise against the awful 
declaration ; or they crown Him as a surety, the better to ' set Him 
at nought ' as a monarch. If He adds to His ministers, ' Go, and 
teach all nations to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded 
you ; ' they complain, ' This is the law ; give us the gospel, we can 
relish nothing but the gospel.' " 

" Hence it is that some preachers must choose comfortable subjects 
to please their hearers ; just as those, who make an entertainment for 
nice persons, are obliged to study what will suit their difficult taste. A 



Age 42.] 



Prevalent Antinomianism. 



213 



multitude of important Scriptures can be produced, on which no minister, 
who is unwilling to lose his reputation as an evangelical preacher, must 
dare to speak in some pulpits, unless it is to explain away or enervate 
their meaning." 

"Whence springs this almost general Antinomianism of our con- 
gregations ? Shall I conceal the sore because it festers in my own 
breast ? Shall I be partial ? No ! In the name of Him who is no 
respecter of persons, I will confess my sin, and that of many of my 
brethren. Though I am the least and the most unworthy of them all, I 
will follow the dictates of my conscience, and use the authority of a 
minister of Christ. 

" Is not the Antinomianism of hearers fomented by that of preachers ? 
Does it not become -us to take the greatest part of the blame upon 
ourselves, according to the old adage, ! Like priest, like people ' ? Is 
it surprising that some of us should have an Antinomian audience ? Do 
we not make or keep it so ? When did we preach such a practical 
sermon as that of our Lord on the mount, or write such close letters as 
the epistles of St. John ? Alas ! I doubt it is but seldom. Not living 
so near to God ourselves as we should, we are afraid to come near the 
consciences of our people. Some prefer popularity to plain-dealing. 
We love to see a crowd of worldly-minded hearers, rather than a 
'little flock' 1 a peculiar people, zealous of good works.' Luther's 
advice to Melancthon, ' So preach that those who do not fall out of love 
with their sins, may fall out with thee,' is more and more unfashionable. 
Under pretence of drawing our hearers by love, some of us softly 
rock the cradle of carnal security in which they sleep. The old 
Puritans strongly insisted upon fiersoiial holiness, and the first 
Methodists upon the new birth ; but these doctrines seem to grow out 
of date. The Gospel is cast into another mould. People, it seems, may 
now be 'in Christ' without being ' new creatures,' or new creatures 
without casting 1 old things' away. They may be God's children 
without God's image ; and be ' born of the Spirit' without ' the fruits 
of the Spirit.' If our unregenerate hearers get orthodox ideas about 
the way of salvation in their heads, evangelical phrases concerning 
Jesus' love in their mouths, and a warm zeal for our party and favourite 
forms in their hearts, without any more ado, we help them to rank 
themselves among the children of God. But, alas ! this self-adoption 
into the family of Christ will no more pass in heaven, than self-impu- 
tation of Christ's righteousness." 

"How few of our celebrated pulpits are there where more has not 
been said, at times, for sin than against it ! With what an air of 
positiveness and assurance has that Barabbas, that murderer of Christ 
and souls, been pleaded for ! ' It will humble us, make us watchful, 
stir up our diligence, quicken our graces, endear Christ.' That is, 
in plain English, pride will beget humility, sloth will spur us on to 
diligence, rust will brighten our armour, and unbelief, the very soul of 
every sinful temper, is to do the work of faith ! Jesus, who cleansed 
the lepers with a word or a touch, cannot, with all the force of His 



214 Wesley s Designated Successor. [1771 



Spirit, and virtue of His blood, expel the leprosy of sin ; it is too 
inveterate. Death, that foul monster, the offspring of sin, shall have 
the important honour of killing his father. This is confidently asserted 
by those who cry, ' Nothing but Christ ! ' They allow Him to lop off 
the branches ; but Death, the great Saviour Death, is to destroy the 
root of sin. In the meantime, the temple of God shall have agreement 
with idols, and Christ concord with Belial : the La?nb of God shall 
lie down with the roaring Lion in our heart''' 
|^ "To speak the melancholy truth, how few individuals are free from 
practical Antinomianism ! Setting aside their attendance on the 
ministry of the Word, where is the material difference between several 
of our genteel believers and other people ? Do not we see the sumptuous 
furniture in their apartments, and fashionable elegance in their dress ? 
What sums of money do they frequently lay out in costly superfluities 
to adorn their persons, houses, and gardens ! In our fashionable 
churches and chapels, you may find people professing to believe the 
Bible, who so conform to this present world as to wear gold, pearls, and 
precious stones, when no distinction of office or state obliges them to it, 
in direct opposition to the words of two Apostles, St. Peter and St. 
Paul. Multitudes of professors, far from being convinced of their sin 
in this respect, ridicule Mr. Wesley for bearing his testimony against 
it. The opposition he dares to make to that growing branch of vanity 
affords matter of pious mirth to a thousand Antinomians. Isaiah could 
openly reprove the haughty daughters of Zion, who walked with 
stretched forth ??ecks, wanton eyes, and tinkling feet: he could 
expose the bravery of their fashionable ornaments, their round 
tires like the moon, their chains, bracelets, head-bands , rings and 
ear-rings ; but some of our humble Christian ladies will not bear a 
reproof from Mr. Wesley on the head of dress. They even laugh at 
him as a pitiful legalist, and yet, oh, the inconsistency of the Anti- 
nomian spirit ! they call Isaiah the evangelical prophet J 

" Finery is often attended with an expensive table, at least with such 
delicacies as our purse can reach. St. Paul kept his body u?ider, and 
was in fastings often ; and our Lord gives us directions about the 
proper manner of fasting. But the apostle did not know the easy 
way to heaven taught by Dr. Crisp ; and our Lord did not approve of 
it, or He would have saved Himself the trouble of His directions. In 
general, we look upon fasting much as we do upon penitential flagellation . 
Both equally raise our pity ; we leave them both to popish devotees. 
Some of our good old Church people will yet fast on Good Friday : but 
our fashionable believers begin to cast away that last scrap of self- 
denial. Their faith, which should produce, animate, and regulate 
works of mortification, goes a shorter way to work ; it explodes them 
all." 

Fletcher continues to write in the same strain, through 
many succeeding pages ; but one more extract must suffice. 

" If these shall go into eternal punishment ; if such will be the end 



Age 42.] 



Prevalent Anthiomianism. 



215 



of all the impenitent Nicolaitans ; if our churches and chapels swarm 
with them ; if they crowd our communion tables ; if they are found in 
most of our houses, and too many of our pulpits ; if the seeds of their 
fatal disorder are in all our breasts ; if they produce Antinomianism 
around us in all its forms ; if we see bold Antinomians in principle, 
bare-faced Antinomians in practice, and sly Pharisaical Antinomians , x 
who speak well of the law, to break it with greater advantage, — should 
not every one examine himself whether he is in the faith, and whether 
he has a holy Christ in his heart, as well as a sweet festts upon his 
tongue ; lest he should one day swell the tribe of Antinomian repro- 
bates ? Does it not become every minister of Christ to drop his preju- 
dices, and consider whether he ought not to imitate the old watchman, 
who, fifteen months ago, gave a legal alarm to all the watchmen that 
are in connexion with him ? And should we not do the Church excellent 
service, if, agreeing to lift up our voices against the common enemy, 
we gave God no rest in prayer, and our hearers in preaching, till we all 
did our first works, and oitr latter end, like Job's, exceeded our 
beginning? 

" Near forty years ago, some of the ministers of Christ, in our Church, 
were called out of the extreme of self- righteousness. Flying from it, 
we have run into the opposite, with equal violence. Now that we have 
learned wisdom by what we have suffered in going beyond the limits of 
truth both ways, let us return to a just scriptural medium. Let us equally 
maintain the two evangelical axioms on which the Gospel is founded : 
1 . ' All our salvation is of God, by free grace, through the alone merits 
of Christ.' And, 2. 'All our damnation is Of ourselves, through our 
^avoidable unfaithfulness.' " 

Fletcher's pictures are dark : I incline to think a little too 
dark, though I cannot prove they are. At all events, were 
existing facts such as he states them to have been, it was 
high time to sound an alarm in Zion. 

In a postscript to his " Three Letters," Fletcher refers to 
a pamphlet published by Richard Hill, Esq., respecting a 
conversation which he and others had held with a monk in 
Paris. Having quoted Mr. Hill's remark, that, according to 



1 It may be well to say, once for all, that all these quotations, with 
their differences of type, are taken from the first editions of Fletcher's 
publications. The differences are not preserved in recent editions. 

2 Its title was "A Conversation between Richard Hill, Esq., the Rev. 
Mr. Madan, and Father Walsh, Superior of a Convent of Benedictine 
Monks at Paris, held at the same Convent, July 13, 177 1, in the presence 
of Thomas Powis, Esq., and others, relative to some Doctrinal Minutes 
advanced by the Rev. Mr. John Wesley and others, at a Conference 
held in London, August 7, 1770. To which are added some Remarks 
by the Editor." Fletcher's name is not mentioned in the pamphlet; 



2i6 Wesley's Designated Successor. (mi. 



the monk, " Popery is about the mid-way between Protestant- 
ism and Mr. J. Wesley," Fletcher proceeds to say : — 

"We desire to be confronted with all the pious Protestant divines. 
But, who would believe it ? the suffrage of a papist is brought against 
us ! Astonishing ! that our opposers should think it worth their while 
to raise one recruit against us in the immense city of Paris, where fifty 
thousand might be raised against the Bible itself ! 

" So long as Christ, the prophets, and apostles are for us, together 
with the multitude of the Puritan divines of the last century, we shall 
smile at an army of Popish friars. The knotted whips, that hang by 
their side, will no more frighten us from our Bibles, than the ipse dixit 
of a Benedictine monk will make us explode, as heretical, propositions 
which are demonstrated to be scriptural. 

" I hope the gentlemen concerned in the ' Conversation/ lately pub- 
lished, will excuse the liberty of this postscript. I reverence their piety, 
rejoice in their labours, and honour their warm zeal for the Protestant 
cause ; but that very zeal, if not accompanied with a close attention to 
every part of the Gospel truth, may betray them into mistakes, which 
may spread as far as their respectable names. I think it therefore my 
duty to publish these strictures, lest any of my readers should pay more 
regard to the good-natured friar, who has been pressed into the service 
of Dr. Crisp, than to St. John, St. Paul, St. James, and Jesus Christ, 
on whose plain declarations I have shown that the 'Minutes'" (of 
Mr. Wesley) "are founded." 

So ends all that need be said here concerning- Fletcher's 
" Second Check to Antinomianism." To appreciate its style, 
its temper, and its arguments, the reader must peruse it for 
himself; and, by doing so, his mind will be enriched, and 
his soul profited. 

An extract from one of Fletcher's letters may fitly close 
this section of his biography. The letter was addressed to 
the Rev. Joseph Benson, and was dated "December 5, 1771." 

" There is undoubtedly such a thing as the full assurance of faith. 
Be not discouraged on account of thousands, who stop short of it. It 
is our own fault if we do not attain it. God would give us ample satis- 
faction if we did but deeply feel our wants. Both you and I want a 



but because he chose to refer to it in his " Second Check to Antino- 
mianism," it is here introduced to the reader's notice. Hereafter, in 
order to avoid, as far as possible, a repetition of the history of the 
Calvinian controversy, as published in the " Life and Times of Wesley," 
no publications on the subject will be discussed, except those in which 
Fletcher was attacked, or which he answered. — L. T. 



Age 42.] 



Letter to Joseph Benson. 



217 



deeper awakening, which will produce a death to outward things and 
speculative knowledge. Let us shut our eyes to the gilded clouds with- 
out us : let us draw inward, and search after God, if haply we may find 
Him. Let us hold fast our confidence, though we are often constrained 
against hope, to believe in hope. But let us not rest in our confidence, 
as thousands do ; let it help us to struggle and wait, till He come. Let 
us habituate ourselves to live inwardly. This will solemnize us, and 
prevent our trifling with the things of God. We may be thankful for 
what we have without resting in it. We may strive, and yet not trust 
in our striving ; but expect all from Divine grace." 1 

In such a frame of mind and heart Fletcher carried on his 
polemic warfare. 



1 Benson's " Life of Fletcher." 



If 



218 



Wesley's Designated Successor. 



[1772. 



CHAPTER X. 

a THIRD CHECK TO A NT/NO MIA NISM" 
1772. 

WHEN Fletcher finished his " Second Check to Anti- 
nomianism," in " Three Letters " to Walter Shirley, 
he began a " Vindication of the Doctrine of Christian Per- 
fection." This, however, for a time, was laid aside ; but was 
afterwards completed, and embodied in his " Last Check to 
Antinomianism." The reason for this postponement was a 
somewhat sudden determination to write upon the Unitarian 
Controversy, which was now as prominent as the Calvinian 
one. A brief biographical episode will explain the matter 
more fully. 

Edward Elwall was born at Sedgley, in Staffordshire. 
He settled in business at Wolverhampton, where he acquired 
the reputation of great integrity in his dealings. He had 
not enjoyed the advantages of a learned education, but he 
possessed a serious and inquisitive turn of mind, and had 
good natural abilities. One of his first publications was 
intended to prove that the fourth commandment, appointing 
the seventh day of the week to be observed as the Sabbath, 
was binding on all generations. As long as he continued 
in business, he constantly shut up his shop on that day, and 
as regularly opened it on the succeeding one. For this he 
was called a Jew. About the year 17 14, he became dis- 
tinguished as an Unitarian, and published, " A true Testi- 
mony for God and His sacred Law, being a Defence of the 
first Commandment of God, against all Trinitarians under 
Heaven." This drew on him the resentment of the neigh- 



Age 42.] Unpublished Letter to Rev. Walter Sellon. 219 



bouring clergy, who procured an indictment against him for 
heresy and blasphemy, on which he was tried at Stafford 
Assizes. He pleaded his own cause, and was acquitted. 
After this, he removed to London, and became a member of 
the Seventh-day Baptist Church at Mill-yard, Goodman's 
Fields. Towards the end of life, he attended the meetings 
of the Quakers, and was sometimes permitted to speak at 
them. He died in London, at an advanced age, about the 
year 1745. 

Elwall's work " against all Trinitarians under Heaven " 
had recently been re-published, and Fletcher was requested 
to answer it. Hence the following, hitherto unpublished, 
letter, addressed to " the Rev. Walter Sellon, at Ledsham, 
near Ferry-Bridge, Yorkshire." 

"Madeley, Jaiiuary 7, 1772. 

"My Dear Friend, — I thank you for yours. I hope Glazebrook 1 
will be more moderate, on account of some rubs which his new Cal- 
vinistic zeal has procured him. 

"My reason for troubling you soon with an answer is to make a 

request. I have laid by my Third 2 , which is a vindication of the 

doctrine of Christian perfection. A pamphlet (the third edition) has 
lately been published at Birmingham, and meets with great success. 
The author is E. Elwall, a Socinian Quaker, who was tried for blas- 
phemy at Stafford, and came off with flying colours, after fully denying 
the Godhead of Christ, and His atonement. 

"Some serious people have desired me to answer the book. As I 
suppose your Dr. Freese 3 " (sic) " is one of his stamp, I want to see by 
your candle as well as my own. Could you send me, by the post, what 
you have published against him ? By cutting the margin close, you 
might bring it to a tolerable size for a packet ; and I should not grudge 
paying the postage. If you cannot do this, send me, at least, your 
best answer to the objection taken from John xvii. 3, and to the words 
'only God? which seem to exclude Jesus Christ. 

"We must fight the Antinomians while the Calvinists put weapons 
into their hands against the truth. Mr. Hill has taken Mr. Wesley in 
hand very roughly. I have been with him. His answer to my 'Vindi- 
cation ' is expected every day, and is out, I suppose, in London. God 



1 The poor collier whom Fletcher so greatly befriended at Madeley, 
and who was one of the first students at Trevecca, in 1768. 

2 The words are illegible, but, no doubt, his " Third Check to Antino- 
mianism " is meant. 

3 Probably meant for the celebrated Dr. Price, of whom more will 
have to be said anon, 



2 2o Wesley 9 s Designated Successor. [1772. 



give us wisdom ! Set your razor against Mason, for what we mean as 
keenness (which is allowable) is directly construed as bitterness. 

"When you send the packet, put upon the direction, 1 Not by London, 
but by + Post Bag, Manchester and SaZo_p,' or else they will make me 
pay double. 

"I preach much, and see little fruit. The Holy Ghost is not given 
among us. These are hard times. God help us to more gospel and 
life, but not my lady's gospel ! 

" I am yours in a hurry, 

"J. Fletcher." 

Not to mention other matters referred to in this letter, 
there can be no doubt that Fletcher now began to write his 
Anti-Socinian Treatises ; but, as will be seen hereafter, he 
never finished them. Other things, even more pressing, 
claimed his attention, and he was obliged to postpone his 
attack on the citadel of religious infidelity. 

" I long to be out of controversy," said Fletcher to Joseph 
Benson, in a letter dated February 1772, 1 and yet he con- 
tinued it. He could not help himself. To say nothing of 
the duty he owed to Christ and Gospel truth, it was im- 
possible, at present, to retire from the field of conflict with- 
out exposing himself to the taunt of recreant timidity. 
Besides, though his opponents had been vanquished, they 
would, in that case, have appeared victorious. No doubt, 
also, he was encouraged to proceed by his bespattered but 
beloved friend Wesley. In a letter to Lady Maxwell, 
Wesley wrote : — 

"London, February 8, 1772. 
" My Dear Lady, — I commend you for meddling with points of con- 
troversy as little as possible. It is abundantly easier to lose our love in 
that rough field, than to find truth. This consideration has made me 
exceedingly thankful to God for giving me a respite from polemical 
labours. I am glad He has given to others both the power and the will 
to answer them that trouble me ; so that I may not always be forced to 
hold my weapons in one hand, while I am building with the other. I 
rejoice, likewise, not only in the abilities, but in the temper, of Mr. 
Fletcher. He writes as he lives. I cannot say that I know such 
another clergyman in England or Ireland. He is all fire, but it is the 
fire of love. His writings, like his constant conversation, breathe 
nothing else, to those who read him with an impartial eye. And, 



Benson's " Life of Fletcher." 



Age 42.] Fletcher s Letter to the Dublin Methodists, 221 



although Mr. Shirley scruples not to charge him with using subtilty and 
metaphysical distinctions, yet he abundantly clears himself of this 
charge, in the ' Second Check to Antinomianism.' Such the last letters 
are styled, and with great propriety; for such they have really been. 
They have given a considerable check to those who were everywhere 
making void the law through faith ; setting ' the righteousness of Christ ' 
in opposition to the law of Christ, and teaching that without holiness 
any man may see the Lord." 1 

All, however, were not of Wesley's opinion. In Ireland, 
Walter Shirley was a great favourite among the Methodists, 
for there he had preached with much success. Fletcher's 
first and second " Checks " were addressed to Shirley ; and 
the Irish Methodists, who, as yet, had neither heard nor seen 
their author, were divided in their sentiments respecting 
them. The Dublin Society wrote two letters to him, in 
answer to which he sent them the following : — 

"To the Methodist Society at Dublin. 

"Madeley, March, 1772. 

"My Dear Brethren, — Mercy and love be multiplied unto you, 
from Him who was and is to come, the Almighty ! 

" I should have acknowledged before now the favour of the two Letters 
with which you honoured me, if I had not conveyed my thanks to you 
immediately by means of brother Morgan. 2 But thanks at second-hand 
do not satisfy my gratitude ; permit me, therefore, to present them, if 
not in person, at least by some grateful lines personally written. 

' ' I am much obliged to those of you who approve my little attempt 
to vindicate practical religion and the character of an eminent servant 
of Christ, who ministered unto you in holy things, and whom some of 
our mistaken friends in England exposed as the author of dreadful 
heresy. The thanks which some of you unexpectedly bestowed upon 
me on that occasion, I have laid at the feet of Jesus, to whom all praise 
belongs, who is the author of ever}' good gift, and from whom comes all 
the help done upon the earth. 

" When I took up my pen, I aimed at discharging my duty towards 
God and His misapprehended truth ; towards my honoured father in 
Christ, Mr. Wesley, and his misunderstood ' Minutes ' ; and though all 
the world should have blamed me, they would never have robbed me of 
the satisfaction of having at least attempted to clear my conscience. 

" The manner in which part of you have refused me their thanks, is 
too civil and brotherly not to deserve mine. I wish many of our English 



! Wesley's Works, vol. xii., p. 326. 

2 One of Wesley's itinerant preachers, well-read and popular, but 
now enervated, and settled in Dublin. 



222 



Wesley* s Designated Successor. [1772. 



brethren had been as moderate as you in their disapprobation of my 
letters to the Rev. Mr. Shirley. You will see in a ' Second Check to 
Antinomianism ' some things that may reconcile you to the first ; and 
I have just sent to the press a 'Third Check,' to what appears to me 
the favourite delusion of the Church ; which I trust will cast more light 
on the delicate subject about which we divide. 

" If we cannot see things in the same light, I hope we never shall, I 
beg we never may, disagree in love. 

" I am glad you agreed to disagree about the giving or refusing me 
.your undeserved thanks. Let every little rub of opposition heighten 
our love ; every little clashing of sentiment make the heavenly spark 
show itself, and kindle our souls into that charity which hopeth all things, 
endureth all things, thinketh no evil, and is not provoked. 

" If I have been obliged to bear a little hardly upon my dear honoured 
brother, Mr. Shirley, I beg that nothing I have written to him on account 
of his precipitancy, rashness, or hurry, may prevent you from looking 
upon him with the love and respect due to a minister of Christ. Recom- 
mending him and myself to your prayers, and taking the liberty to 
recommend to you mutual forbearance, a daily increase of brotherly 
love, and a continual growth in the genuine liberty of the Gospel, I 
remain, my dear brethren, your obliged, affectionate, and obedient 
brother and servant, 

" John Fletcher." 1 

It has been already stated that at the commencement of 
the year 1772, Fletcher was writing his " Vindication of the 
Doctrine of Christian Perfection ; " and that this was laid 
aside for the purpose of writing against Socinianism. Very 
soon, however, he had to devote his attention to another 
subject. In the foregoing letter, dated "March, 1772," he 
tells the Methodist Society at Dublin that he had sent his 
" Third Check to Antinomianism " to the press ; and this 
is confirmed by the following extract from a letter by 
Wesley to his brother Charles : — 

"Birmingham, March 17, 1772. 
"Iam to-day to meet Mr. Fletcher at Billbrook. Part of the 1 Third 
Check ' is printing ; the rest I have ready. In this he draws the sword 
and throws away the scabbard. Yet, I doubt not, they will forgive him 
all, if he will but promise to write no more." 2 

Fletcher's parochial duties were heavy, and yet he seems 



1 ' ' Thirteen Original Letters written by the Rev. J. Fletcher. ' ' Bath, 
1791, p. 22. 

2 Wesley's Works, vol. xii., p. 128. 



Age 42.] Fletcher's" Third Check to Antinomianism" 223 



to have written his " Third Check to Antinomianism " in 
about a month. It must have been a strain to accomplish 
this. The work is no flimsy production, but is full of 
Scriptural arguments, which could not be framed, arranged, 
and adequately expressed without a vast amount of labour; 
and the book itself was of no mean size, consisting, as it did, 
of one hundred and fourteen small typed and closely printed 
pages. The following was its title : " A Third Check to 
Antinomianism ; in a Letter to the Author of ' Pietas 
Oxoniensis : ' By the Vindicator of the Rev. Mr. Wesley's 
Minutes. 1 Reprove, rebuke, exhort, with all long-suffering 
and Scriptural doctrine ; for the time will come when they 
will not endure sound doctrine,' 2 Tim. iv. 2, 3. ' Where- 
fore rebuke them sharply ', that they may be sound iu the faith; 
but let brotherly love continue! Tit. i. 13, Heb. xiii. 1. Bristol: 
Printed by W. Pine in Wine Street, 1772." 

Why was it written and published ? Fletcher had replied 
to the " Circular Letter " and the " Narrative " of Shirley, 
and in doing so had vindicated Wesley's " Minutes." Shirley 
was now silent, but other antagonists started up. A small 
8 vo. pamphlet was published, with the title " A Letter to 
the Rev. Mr. Fletcher, of Madeley, on the Differences sub- 
sisting between him and the Hon. and Rev. Mr. Shirley." 
The author subscribed himself " An enemy to no man, but a 
friend to religion;" and his letter was dated " Bath, February 
3, 1772." This religious gentleman alleged that, under the 
existing circumstances, the publication of Fletcher's answer 
to Shirley's " Circular Letter " " was highly censurable, yea, 
criminal." He accused Fletcher of " wantonly scattering 
firebrands, arrows, and death ; " his defence of Wesley's 
" Minutes " was "flimsy;" and he was actuated by " personal 
envy or enmity more than by a love to Christ and a godly 
zeal to promote truth." Fletcher, properly enough, declined 
to notice the virulent and frothy pamphlet of this Bath 
religionist ; but another publication, issued about the same 
time, demanded his attention. Its author was his friend and 
neighbour, Richard Hill, Esq., and its title as follows : " Five 
Letters to the Reverend Mr. F r, relative to his Vindica- 
tion of the Minutes of the Reverend Mr. John Wesley. 
Intended chiefly for the comfort of mourning backsliders, 



224 Wesley 9 s Designated Successor. [1772. 



and such as may have been distressed and perplexed by 
reading Mr. Wesley's Minutes, or the Vindication of them. 
By a Friend. London: 1772." 8 vo., 40 pp. 1 

Mr. Hill's first letter is dated "December 2, 1 77 1 ." 2 His 
pamphlet is remarkable for two things — only two : — First, 
the highest Christian urbanity towards Fletcher; and secondy, 
the writer's curious theology. A few extracts from Mr. Hill's 
letters will suffice to show that Fletcher's task of answering 
his courteous opponent was not a difficult undertaking. 

' ' God alone knows the sorrow of heart wherewith I address you ; and 
how much the fear of casting stumbling-blocks before some who are 
really sincere, and the apprehensions of giving malicious joy to others 
who desire no greater satisfaction than to see the children of the Prince 
of Peace divided among themselves, had well-nigh prevailed upon me 
to pour out my soul in silence instead of publicly taking up the pen 
against you. But when I perceived the solicitude with which Mr. 
Wesley's preachers recommended your letters to Mr. Shirley in their 
respective congregations, and, above all, how many of God's people 
had been perplexed and distressed by reading them, — I say, when I 
perceived this to be the case, and had prayed to the Giver of all wisdom 
for direction, I could not but esteem it my indispensable duty to send 
out a few observations on your book, especially as no other person, that 
I know of, had made any reply to the doctrinal parts of it from the time 
of its publication. With regard to the ' Circular Letter, I shall 
studiously avoid the very mention of it ; as whether the sending of it 
were in itself a wrong step or a right one, is of no consequence in the 
matter of salvation. Neither shall I follow you page by page, but 
taking the ' Minutes ' in the order they stand, shall dwell upon them, 
more or less, as appears necessary." 

The plan here propounded is carried out, but want of 
space renders it impossible to give an outline of Mr. Hill's 
theology. The following quotations must be taken as 
specimens of others which might be given : — 



A second edition, "revised and much enlarged," was published 
about the same time as Fletcher's "Third Check." The first edition 
consisted of forty pages, the second of fifty-two. There is nothing of 
importance, however, in the second issue which is not in the first, 
except a few acrid references to Wesley. The following may be taken 
as a specimen : "I shall make no remarks upon the poor, loose, flimsy 
manner in which the ' Minutes ' are worded ; but I cannot help observing 
that it seems almost impossible for Mr. Wesley to write a page without 
contradicting himself " (p. 50). 

2 In the second edition it is dated " Feb., 1772." 



Age 42.] Mr. Richard HHPs Five Letters to Fletcher. 225 



''Your argument is this ; that, 'believing is previous to justification.* 
But, dear Sir, this is begging the question ; and, permit me to say, that 
I deny the assertion. Waving all disputes concerning eternal justifica- 
tion, or justification in the mind and purpose of God, I maintain, that, 
believing cannot possibly be previous to justification ; and you must 
yourself maintain the same, unless you will adopt the phrase of an 
unjustified believer ; whereas the Holy Ghost teaches that all who 
believe are jicstified. We may as well suppose that a man eats before 
he takes any food, and that he sees before he receives the light of the 
sun, as that he believes before he is justified : for believing, and feeding 
upon Christ, are not more inseparably connected than eating and taking 
bodily food, or than seeing and receiving light are inseparably con- 
nected. Yea, true faith can no more subsist without its object Christ, 
than there can be a marriage without a husband. From hence, I con- 
clude, that the doctrine of believing before justification, and thereby 
making the grace of faith a conditional work, is not less contrary to 
reason than it is to Scripture itself." 

"I most sincerely abhor the Minute, 'that we are every hour and 
every moment pleasing or displeasing to God, according to our works ; 
according to the whole of our inward tempers, and our outward beha- 
viour ; ' and, yet, I equally abhor the assertion, ' that David did not 
displease God more when he committed adultery with Bathsheba, and 
imbrued his hands in her husband's blood, than when he danced before 
the ark.' I know, from Scripture authority, that when David committed 
the sin you allude to, the thing which he had done displeased the Lord. 
But, though I believe that David's sin displeased the Lord, must I 
therefore believe that David' s j>erso7i came under the curse of the law ? 
and that, because he was ungrateful, God, whose gifts and callings are 
without repentance, was unfaithful ? Surely no. David was still a son, 
though a perverse one. Like backsliding Ephraim, he was still a plea- 
sant child, though he went on frowardly." 

" Either Christ has fulfilled the whole law, and borne the curse, or 
He has not. If He has not, no soul can ever be saved ; if He has, then 
all debts and claims against His people, be they more or be they less, 
be they small or be they great, be they before or be they after conversion, 
are for ever and for ever cancelled. All trespasses are forgiven them. 
They are justified from all things. They already have everlasting life. 
They are now (virtually) sat down in heavenly places with Christ their 
Forerunner ; and as soon shall Satan pluck His crown from His head, 
as His purchase from His hand." 

Such were some of the absurd and pernicious doctrines 
propounded by Mr. Hill, and which Fletcher felt it his duty 
to refute. Towards Wesley, there is, in Mr. Hill's pamphlet, 
an occasional stroke of bitterness, as, for instance, where he 
asserts that " there is a much nearer resemblance between 
the doctrines of Mr. John Wesley and mother Church S 



15 



226 



Wesley's Designated Successor, 



[1772. 



(Popery) "than the popish Superior chose to acknowledge;" 1 
but towards Fletcher, Mr. Hill, throughout, displays the most 
respectful kindness, and concludes his fifth and last letter 
thus : — 

" And now, dear Sir, I cannot conclude these letters without express- 
ing my earnest desire that the contents of them may never cause any 
decrease of love and Christian fellowship between us. Pardon then, 
my dear Sir, I ardently beseech you, O pardon all that you have found 
amiss in the unworthy author of these epistles ; and much, I am sure, 
your charity will have to overlook. If we cannot see things alike now, 
I hope the time is not far off when we shall be thoroughly united in 
sentiment, as well as in heart, and each of us, casting our crowns before 
the throne, shall join our voices in that one harmonious song of praise, 
with which the regions of bliss shall echo without intermission, and 
without end, 1 Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and 
riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and blessing.' 
' Blessing, and honour, and glory, and power, be unto Him that sitteth 
upon the throne, and unto the Lamb, for ever and ever.' 

" In the meanwhile, let me acknowledge before the world that there 
is not a man living to whom I am more indebted for repeated instances 
of affection, and labours of love, than I am to dear Mr. Fletcher; and, 
therefore, notwithstanding all differences of judgment between us, I 
trust he will always give me leave to subscribe myself his most affec- 
tionate friend and brother, in the bonds of the Gospel of peace, 

" The Author of Pietas Oxo7tie?zsis.' n 

This was worthy of Mr. Hill, who, eleven years afterwards, 
succeeded to the title and estates of his father, and became 
Sir Richard Hill, Bart. 

Though Mr. Hill's first letter to Fletcher was dated as 
recently as December 2, 1 771, the whole five were published, 
and Fletcher's answer to them committed to the press as 
early as the month of March, 2 1772. Fletcher begins his 
" Third Check to Antinomianism" as follows : — 

" Honoured and Dear Sir, — Accept my sincere thanks for the 
Christian courtesy with which you treat me in your five letters. 

" Some of our friends will undoubtedly blame us for not yet dropping 
the contest ; but others will candidly consider that controversy, though 



1 The reference here is to Father Walsh, the Benedictine monk at 
Paris ; and, it maybe added, that, in a foot-note, Mr. Hill acknowledges 
himself to have been the author of the ''Conversation" with that gentle- 
man, recently published. 

2 The date, at the end of the Third Check, is " Madeley, February 3, 
1772." 



age 42.] The Grace of God given to all Men. 227 



not desirable in itself, yet properly managed, has, a hundred times, 
rescued truth, groaning under the lash of triumphant error. We are 
indebted to our Lord's controversies with the Pharisees and Scribes for 
a considerable part of the four Gospels ; and, to the end of the world, 
the Church will bless God for the spirited manner in which St. Paul, in 
his Epistles to the Romans and Galatians, defended the controverted 
point of a believer's present justification by faith ; as well as for the steadi- 
ness with which St. James, St. John, St. Peter, and St. Jude carried on 
their important controversy with the Nicolaitans, who abased St. Paul's 
doctrine to Antinomian purposes. 

" Had it not been for controversy, Romish priests would, to this day, 
feed us with Latin masses and a wafer-god. Some bold propositions, 
advanced by Luther against the doctrine of indulgences, unexpectedly 
brought on the Reformation. They were so irrationally attacked by the 
infatuated papists, and so scripturally defended by the resolute Protes- 
tants, that these kingdoms opened their eyes, and saw thousands of 
images and errors fall before the ark of evangelical truth. 

"From what I have advanced in my Second Check, it appears, if I 
am not mistaken, that we stand now as much in need of a reformation 
from Antinomianism, as our ancestors did of a reformation from Popery; 
and I am not without hope that the extraordinary attack which has 
been made upon Mr. Wesley's anti-Crispian propositions, and the 
manner in which they are defended, will open the eyes of many, and 
check the rapid progress of so enchanting and pernicious an evil. This 
hope inspires me with fresh courage ; and, turning from the Hon. and 
Rev. Mr. Shirley, I presume to face (I trust in the spirit of love and 
meekness) my new respectable opponent," 

Fletcher's first purpose, in this important controversy, 
was to attack Antinomianism; now he was obliged to attack 
Calvinism, which, though the parent of Antinomianism, did 
not in the present instance approve of it. It is needless 
to recapitulate Fletcher's arguments in favour of the two 
doctrines, that all mankind are redeemed by the infinite 
sacrifice of the incarnate Son of God, and that, through the 
same sacrifice, " the manifestation of the Spirit is given to 
every man to profit withal" (i Cor. xii. 7). A few brief 
extracts, however, will help to illustrate his spirit, and his 
style of writing. 

" The grace of God is as the wind, which bloweth where it listeth ; 
and it listeth to blow, with more or less force successively, all over the 
earth. You can as soon meet with a man that never felt the wind, or 
heard the sound thereof, as with one that never felt the Divine breath- 
ings, or heard the still small voice, which we call the grace of God. 
To suppose the Lord gives us a thousand tokens of His eternal $on ] er 



228 



Wesley's Designated Successor. 



[1772. 



and Godhead, without giving us a capacity to consider, and grace to 
improve them, is not less absurd than to imagine that when He bestowed 
upon Adam all the trees of paradise for food, He gave him no eyes to 
see, no hands to gather, and no mouth to eat their delicious fruits." 

" Waiving the case of infants, idiots, and those who have sinned the 
sin unto death, was there ever a sinner under no obligation to repent 
and to believe in a merciful God ? Oh, ye opposers of free grace, 
search the universe with Calvin's candle, and among your reprobated 
millions, find out the person who never had a merciful God ; and show 
us the unfortunate creature, whom a sovereign God bound over to 
absolute despair of His mercy from the womb. If there is no such 
person in the world ; if all men are bound to repent and to believe in 
a merciful God, there is an end of Calvinism. An unprejudiced man 
can require no stronger proof that all are redeemed from the curse of 
the Adamic law, which admitted of no repentance ; and that the 
covenant of grace, which admits of, and makes provision for it, freely 
extends to all mankind. 

" Out of Christ's fulness all have received grace, a little leave?i of 
saving power, an inward monitor, a divine reprover, a ray of true 
heavenly light, which manifests first moral, and then spiritual good 
and evil. St. John bears witness of that light, and declares it was 
the spiritual life of man, the true light which enlighteneth not only 
every man that comes into the Church, but every ma?t that comes into 
the world — without excepting those who are yet in darkness. For the 
light shineth in darkness, even when the darkness comprehends it 
not. The Baptist also bore witness of that light,that all men through 
it, not through him, might believe ; <pas, light, being the last ante- 
cedent, and agreeing perfectly with dl avrov." 

The reader has already seen Mr. Hill's strange and per- 
nicious doctrine respecting eternal justification. Fletcher 
treats this Calvinistic dream with terrible though polite 
severity. Without attempting to condense his arguments, 
the following extract will serve to show his perfect victory 
over his respected opponent : — 

<( You go on, ' If Christ fulfilled the whole law and bore the curse, then 
all debts and claims against His people, be they more or be they less, be 
they small or be they great, be they before or be they after conversion, 
are for ever and for ever cancelled.' 

"Your doctrine drags after it all the absurdities of eternal, absolute 
justification. It sets aside the use of repentance and faith, in order to 
pardon and acceptance. It represents the sins of the elect as forgiven 
not only before they are confessed, but even before they are committed. 
It supposes that all the penitents who have believed that they were 
once children of wrath, and that God was displeased at them when 
they lived in sin, have believed a lie. It makes the preaching of the 



Age 42.] Good Men doing the Devil's Work. 229 



Gospel one of the most absurd, wicked, and barbarous things in the 
world. For what can be more absurd than to say, ' Repent ye, and 
believe the Gospel ; ' ' He that believeth not shall be damned ; ' if a 
certain number can never recent or believe, and a certain number can 
never be damned ? ' ' 

In concluding his Treatise, Fletcher remarks : — 

" If I have addressed my Three Checks to the Rev. Mr. Shirley and 
yourself" ("Mr. Richard Hill), " God is my witness it was not to reflect 
upon two of the most eminent characters in the circle of my religious 
acquaintance. Forcible circumstances have over-ruled my inclinations. 
Decipimur specie recti. Thinking to attack error, you have attacked 
the very truth which Providence calls me to defend : and the attack 
appears to me so much the more dangerous as your laborious zeal and 
eminent piety are more worthy of public regard, than the boisterous 
rant and loose insinuations of twenty practical Antinomians. The 
tempter is not so great a novice in anti-Christian politics as to engage 
only such to plead for doctrinal Antinomianism. This would soon 
spoil the trade. It is his masterpiece of wisdom to get good men 
to do him that eminent service. He knows that their good lives will 
make way for their bad principles. Nor does he ever deceive with 
more decency and success than under the respectable cloak of their 
genuine piety. 

" If a wicked man pleads for sin, foenun habet in cornu, he carries 
the mark on his forehead; we stand upon our guard. But when a 
good man gives us to understand that there are no lengths God's 
people may not nm, nor any depths they may not fall into, without 
losing the character of men after God's own heart, that many will 
praise God for our denial of Christ, that sin and corruption work 
for good, that a fall into adultery will drive us nearer to Christ, 
and make us sing louder to the praise of free grace ; when he quotes 
Scripture too, in order to support these assertions, calling them the 
pure Gospel, and representing the opposite doctrine as the Pelagian 
heresy, worse than popery itself, — he casts the Antinomian net on the 
right side of the ship, and is likely to enclose a great multitude of 
unwary men ; especially if some of the best hands in the kingdom drive 
the frighted shoal into the net, and help to drag it to shore. 

"This is, honoured Sir, what you have done, not designedly, but 
thinking to do God service. Hence the steadiness with which I have 
looked in the face a man of God, whose feet I should be glad to wash 
at any time, under a lively sense of my great inferiority. I beg you 
not to consider the unceremonious plainness of a Swiss mountaineer as 
the sarcastic insolence of an incorrigible Arminian. 

"By a mistake, fashionable among religious people, you have 
unhappily paid more regard to Dr. Crisp than to St. James. And, 
as you have pleaded the dangerous cause of the impenitent monarch, 
I have addressed you with the honest boldness of the expostulating 
prophet. I have said to my honoured opponent, ' Thou art the man ! ' 



230 



Wesley's Designated Successor. 



[1772. 



" I owe much respect to you, but more to truth, to conscience, and to 
God. If, in trying to discharge my duty towards them, I have in- 
advertently betrayed any want of respect to you, I humbly ask your 
pardon ; and I can assure you, in the face of the whole world, that 
notwithstanding your strong attachment to the peculiarities of Dr. 
Crisp, as there is no family in the world to which I am under greater 
obligations than yours, so there are few gentlemen for whom I have so 
peculiar an esteem, as for the respectable author of Pietas Oxoniensis" 

"Before I lay down my pen," says Fletcher, in a "Postscript," "I 
beg leave to address, a moment, the true believers who espouse 
Calvin's sentiments. Think not, honoured brethren, that I have no 
eyes to see the eminent services which many of you render to the 
Church of Christ ; no heart to bless God for the Christian graces which 
shine in your exemplary conduct ; no pen to testify, that, by letting 
your light shine before men. you adorn the Gospel of God our Saviour, 
as many of your predecessors have done before you. I am not only 
persuaded that your opinions are consistent with a genuine conversion 
but I take heaven to witness how much I prefer a Calvinist who loves 
God to a Remonstrant who does not. If I have, therefore, taken the 
liberty of exposing your favourite mistakes, do me the justice to believe 
that it was not to pour contempt upon your respectable persons ; but to 
set your peculiarities in such a light as might either engage you to 
renounce them, or check the forwardness with which some have lately 
recommended them as the only docti-ines of grace % and the pure Gospel 
of Jesus Christ ; unkindly representing their remonstrant brethren as 
enemies to free grace, and abettors of a dreadful heresy. 

"And you, my remonstrant brethren, permit me to offer 3^ou some 
seasonable advices. 1. More than ever, let us confirm our love to our 
Calvinist brethren. If our arguments gall them, let us not envenom 
the sore by maliciously triumphing over them. Nothing is more likely 
to provoke their displeasure, and drive them from what we believe to 
be the truth. 2. Do not rejoice in the mistakes of our opponents, but 
in the detection of error. Desire not that we, but that truth may 
prevail. Let us not only be willing that our brethren should win the 
day if they have truth on their side ; but let us make it matter of 
solemn, earnest, and constant prayer. 3. Let us strictly observe the 
rules of decency and kindness, taking care not to treat any of our 
opponents in the same manner that they have treated Mr. Wesley. 
The men of the world sometimes hint that he is a papist, and a Jesuit ; 
but good, mistaken men have gone much farther in the present con- 
troversy. They have published to the world, that they verily believe his 
'principles are too rotten for even a papist to rest upon ; that he 
wades through the quagmires of ' Pelagianism, deals in inconsisfeiicies, 
manifest contradictions t and strange prevarications ; that Ma con- 
trast were drawn from his various assertio?zs upon the doctrine of 
sinless perfection, a little piece might extend into a folio volume ; 
and that they are more than ever convinced of his prevaricating dis- 
position. Not satisfied with going to a Benedictine monk, in Paris, 



Age 42.] 



Advices to Arminians. 



231 



for help against his dreadful heresy, they have wittily extracted an 
argument, ad hominem, from the comfortable dish of tea he drinks 
with Mrs. Wesley; and, to complete the demonstration of their 
respect for that grey-headed, laborious minister of Christ, they have 
brought him upon the stage of controversy in a dress of their own con- 
triving, and made him declare to the world, that, whenever he and fifty- 
three of his fellow-labourers say one thing, they mean quite another. 
And what has he done to deserve this usage at their hands ? Which 
of them has he treated unjustly or unkindly ? Even in the course of 
this controversy, has he injured any man ? May he not say to this 
hour, Tic fiugnas ; ego vaftulo tantum ? Let us avoid this warmth, 
my brethren ; remembering that personal reflections will never pass for 
convincing arguments with the judicious and humane. 

" I have endeavoured to follow this advice with regard to Dr. Crisp ; 
nevertheless, lest you should rank him with practical Antinomians, I 
once more gladly protest my belief that he was a good man ; and 
desire that none of you would condemn all his sermons, much less his 
character, on account of his unguarded antinomian propositions. 

"4. If you would help us to remove the prejudices of our brethren, 
not only grant with a good grace, but strongly insist upon the great truths 
for which they make so noble a stand. Steadily assert, with them, that 
the scraps of morality and formality, by which Pharisees and deists 
pretend to merit the Divine favour, are only filthy rags in the sight of 
a holy God ; and that no righteousness is current in heaven but the 
righteousness which is of God by faith. If they have set their hearts 
upon calling it the imputed righteousness of Christ, though the expres- 
sion is not strictly scriptural, let it pass ; but give them to understand, 
that as Divine imputation of righteousness is a most glorious reality, 
so human imputation is a most delusive dream ; and that of this sort 
is undoubtedly the Calvinian imputation of righteousness to a man, 
who actually defiles his neighbour's bed, and betrays innocent blood. 
A dangerous contrivance this ! not less subversive of common heathenish 
morality, than of St. James' s fture a?id unde filed religion. 

" Again, our Calvinist brethren excel in setting forth a.J>art of Christ's 
priestly office ; I mean the immaculate purity of His most holy life, and 
the all-atoning, all-meritorious sacrifice of His bloody death. Here 
imitate, and, if possible, surpass them. Shout a finished atonement 
louder than they. If they call this complete atonement finished salva- 
tion, or the fi?iished work of Christ, indulge them still: for peace's 
sake, let those expressions pass ; nevertheless, at proper times, give 
them to understand that it is absolutely contrary to reason, Scripture, 
and Christian experience to think that #// Christ's mediatorial work is 
finished. Insinuate you should be very miserable if He had nothing 
more to do for you and in you. Tell them, as they can bear it, that 
He works daily as a Prophet to enlighten you ; as a Priest to make^ 
intercession for yow ; as a J£ing to subdue your enemies ; as a Redeemer 
to deliver you out of all your troubles ; and as a Saviour to help you 
to work out your own salvation ; and hint that, in all these respects,/ 



232 Wesley } s Designated Successor. [1772. 



Christ's work is no more finished than the working of our own salvation 
is completed. 

"The judicious will understand you; as for bigots, they are proof 
against Scripture and good sense. Nevertheless, mild irony, sharply 
pointing a scriptural argument, may yet pass between the joints of their 
impenetrable armour, and make them feel either some shame, or some 
weariness of contention. But this is a dangerous method, which I would 
recommend to very few. Q^one should dip his pen in the wine of irony, 
till he has dipped it in the oil of love ; and even then, he should not use 
it without constant prayer, and as much caution as a surgeon lances an 
impostume. If he goes too deep, he does mischief; if not deep enough, 
he loses his time ; the virulent humour is not discharged, but irritated 
by the skin-deep operation. And ' who is sufficient for these things ? ' 
Gracious God of wisdom and love ! if Thou call est us to this difficult 
and thankless office, let all our sufficiency be of Thee ! and should the 
operation succeed, Thine and Thine alone shall be all the glory." 

Such advices were Christian and opportune. No doubt, 
they were meant for men like Thomas Olivers and Walter 
Sellon. Wesley, in a tract of twelve pages, had, in 1770, 
attacked Toplady's " Abridgement of Zanchius on Predesti- 
nation." Toplady, in the same year, had replied to this, in 
a most bitter and scurrilous " Letter to the Rev. Mr. John 
Wesley." Not having leisure for this kind of work, Wesley 
had requested Olivers to answer Toplady. Olivers, in 1771, 
had published his " Letter to the Reverend Mr. Toplady" 
(i2mo, 60 pp.), and had treated Toplady with an amount 
of well-deserved tartness, which quite justified Fletcher in 
giving the above advice. 

Then, again, Walter Sellon, in the same year, 1771, had 
published his " Church of England Vindicated from the 
Charge of Absolute Predestination, as is stated and asserted 
by the Translator of Jerome Zanchius, in his Letter to the 
Rev. Dr. Nowell. Together with Some Animadversions on 
his Translation of Zanchius, his Letter to the Rev. Mr. John 
Wesley, and his Sermon on 1 Tim. i. 10." i2mo, 129 pp. 
In his small country parish, Ledsham, in Yorkshire, Sellon 
had dealt Toplady's predestination theory heavy blows-; and, 
it must be added, he had not been sparing in virulence. He 
began with telling the abusive vicar of Broad Hembury, " I 
shall deal plainly with you ; more plainly, perhaps, than you 
might desire ; yet not so plainly as you might justly expect. 
I would not say a word barely to enrage you ; and yet, I 



Age 42.] 



Fletcher's Cautions Neided. 



233 



doubt not, but I shall enrage you, because there is no coping 
with such writers as you, without speaking a little in your 
own manner ; and I have always observed, those that are 
most prone to give offence are also most prone to take it." 
Sellon fulfilled his threatening promise, and concluded : 
" Excuse my plainness, Sir, if I tell you farther, you seem 
much to stand in need of learning the lesson dictated by 
Solon of Athens, 'Know thyself;' and of praying heartily that 
prayer prescribed by our Church, 'From all blindness of heart; 
from pride, vainglory, and hypocrisy ; from envy, hatred, and 
malice, and all uncharitableness , — Good Lord, deliver us /'" 

Fletcher, in this irritating controversy, never lost his temper. 
Some of his coadjutors and opponents did ; and hence the 
Christian and needed cautions and advices at the end of his 
''Third Check to Antinomianism." 



234 Wesley's Designated Successor. [1772. 



CHAPTER XI. 

"FOURTH CHECK TO A NTINOMIA NISM. " 



HE issue of Fletcher's "Third Check" was immediately 



JL followed by "A Review of all the Doctrines taught by 
the Rev. Mr. John Wesley ; containing a full and particular 
Answer to a Book entitled, ' A Second Check to Antino- 
mianism. In Six Letters, to the Author of that Book. 
Wherein the Doctrines of a Twofold Justification, Free- Will, 
Man's Merit, Sinless Perfection, Finished Salvation, and Real 
Antinomianism are particularly discussed ; and the Puritan 
Divines vindicated from the Charges brought against them 
of holding Mr. Wesley's Doctrines.' To which is added ' A 
Farrago .' London, 1772." 8vo, 151 pp. The letters are 
all signed "The Author of P.O. " meaning, of course, Richard 



Almost at the same time that the book, with this ponderous 
title, was published, Mr. Richard Hill committed to the press 
an 8vo tract of sixteen pages, entitled, " Some Remarks on 
a Pamphlet, entitled, A Third Check to Antinomianism. By 
the Author of ' Pietas Oxoniensis! " 

Of the second of these publications nothing need be said. 
Considerable bitterness towards Wesley is displayed, and a 
modicum of severity towards Fletcher ; but, perhaps, not 
more than might be naturally expected ; for men dislike 
to be vanquished. 

His first and much larger pamphlet, containing, besides 
the " Farrago," " Six Letters" addressed to Fletcher, must 
have more attention. The "Letters" relate, not to the 
" Third," but the " Second Check" of Fletcher, and were 
published only a few days before the appearance of the 



772. 




Hill. 



age 4 2.] Mr. Richard Hill's " Six Letters:' 235 



" Remarks" just noticed. Mr. Hill thus commences his first 
letter : — 

" Reverend Sir, — After many debates with myself, and much soli- 
citation from my friends, you now hear from me again on your Second 
Check to Antinomianism. I make no other apology for writing, than 
that I think there is an absolute necessity an answer should be given 
to it. But, whilst I make my animadversions on your letters, may the 
Divine Author of love and meekness preserve me from the unhappy spirit 
in which they are written ! Oh, my dear Sir, I never could have supposed 
that sneer, banter, and sarcasm, yea notorious falsehood, calumny, and 
gross perversions, would have appeared before the world under the 
sanction of } r our venerable name." 

In making such accusations, Mr. Hill ought to have known 
he was himself guilty of "notorious falsehood and calumny;" 
but he was angry, and anger is always blindfolding. 

Mr. Hill next proceeds to denounce Wesley's " doctrine 
of a second justification by works ; " and asserts that " it has 
no existence in the Word of God, nor in any Protestant 
Church under heaven ;" but that, in this matter, "Mr. Wesley 
and Mr. Fletcher have the whole Council of Trent on their 
side." 

With considerable ability, but with great bitterness and 
even reviling, especially so far as Wesley is concerned, Mr. 
Hill endeavours to refute Fletcher's arguments in support of 
the doctrine just named, and then remarks : — 

" I intended to have made several other extracts from your first letter; 
but as I really cannot find many lines together free from gross misrepre- 
sentations and perversions, and hardly one single paragraph exempt 
from cutting sneers and low sarcasms, I confess I have not patience to 
transcribe them ; especially when I consider that they are addressed 
to one" (Walter Shirley) "who, notwithstanding your former unkind 
behaviour, hath treated you with all the politeness of a gentleman, and 
the humility of a Christian." 

This was an ebullition of bad temper. The charges are 
untrue, and the spirit is unchristian. Fletcher employed 
irony, but, as all candid readers of his Checks must acknow- 
ledge, it was always polite and decorous. None but irritated 
men, like Mr. Hill, can find " low sarcasms ; " and as for "gross 
misrepresentations and perversions," they have no existence. 

In his Second Letter, Mr. Hill takes up the doctrine of 



236 Wesley's Designated Successor. [1772. 



free-will, and pronounces Fletcher's statements, in support 
of the free agency of man, to be " as totally void of solid 
scriptural argument, as they are replete with calumny, gross 
perversions, and equivocations." 

In his Third Letter, Mr. Hill discusses what he is pleased 
to call Sinless Perfection, — a doctrine which neither Wesley 
nor Fletcher ever taught. Christian Perfection 1 they enforced 
and defended ; but Sinless Perfection, using the word in its 
strict and literal sense, was not a dogma of theirs, but a 
verbal invention, adopted from Whitefield and others, by 
Mr. Hill and his angry friends, who desired to make their 
opponents the target of ridicule and scorn. 

Mr. Hill begins with several revolting anecdotes respecting 
people who professed themselves to be perfect Christians, — 
stories which probably were true ; but stories concerning 
perfect fanatics whom Wesley and Fletcher would have con- 
demned as strongly as Mr. Hill. His Letter terminates with 
a series of the same sort of nauseous anecdotes. In a certain 
sense, it is smart, and Mr. Hill thought it so ; for, in con- 
cluding it, he remarks : — 

" Now, my dear Sir, I have given you a little in your own way ; but, 
notwithstanding you have set me the example in this manner of writing, 
I shall be glad to set you the example of mutual forgiveness. By cutting 
and slashing, we shall never convince each other of our errors ; and the 
end of our controversy will be, that the world will laugh at you for 
taking the sword of banter, the shield of perversion, the helmet of 
prejudice, and the breastplate of acrimony, in order to fight for the 
doctrine of sinless perfection ; and I myself shall be laughed at, in my 
turn, for losing so much precious time in answering you." 

Mr. Hill's fourth letter is a brief one, and is devoted to 
what he calls Fletcher's " heavy bombs of bitter sneer and 
cutting sarcasm," hurled at the doctrine of " the fi?iished 
salvation of Christ!' 

The fifth and sixth letters, and also the postscript, are 
not theological, but simply abusive. Fletcher is said to 



1 The reader who wishes to know what is meant by this is strongly 
recommended to read Wesley's invaluable treatise, entitled, "A Plain 
Account of Christian Perfection ; " his equally important and scriptural 
sermon on " Christian Perfection," and his other irrefutable sermons on 
the same subject. 



Age 42.] 



Mr. Rowland Hill. 



237 



" have traduced all the most celebrated ministers of the 
Gospel " of that day ; and to have " thrown stumbling-blocks 
into the way of thousands." A " wretched spirit of low 
sarcasm and slanderous banter runs throughout " his whole 
writings. Wesley and Fletcher had " adopted a scheme of 
religion gathered out of Pelagianism, Semi-Pelagianism, Ar- 
minianism, Popery, Mysticism, and Quakerism." 

The " Farrago of Hot and Cold Medicines, by the Rev. 
Mr. John Wesley, extracted from his own Publications," is, 
of course, principally levelled against Wesley. The spirit of 
it may be gathered from an extract from Bishop Hall, on 
the title-page of Mr. Hill's ill-natured pamphlet : — ■ 

" I would I knew where to find you ; then I could take a direct aim. 
Whereas now I must rove and conjecture. To-day you are in the tents 
of the Romanists ; to-morrow, in ours ; next day, between both, against 
both. Our adversaries think you ours, we theirs ; your conscience finds 
you with both and neither. I flatter you not ; this of yours is the worst 
of all tempers. Will you be a church alone ? Alas ! how full are you 
of contradictions to yourself ! How full of contrary purposes ! How 
oft do you chide with yourself? How oft do you fight with yourself?" 

Of course, all this was provoking. Had Fletcher been of 
a much less combative disposition than he really was, it 
would have been impossible for him, as a man of honesty 
and honour, to lay aside his pen. Mr. Hill's accusations 
were serious ones, involving Fletcher's moral character ; and 
a reply to them was imperative. But, before Fletcher's 
"Fourth Check to Antinomianism" is introduced to the reader's 
notice, another publication, which preceded it, must be men- 
tioned. This was entitled " Friendly Remarks occasioned by 
the Spirit and Doctrines contained in the Rev. Mr. Fletcher's 
Vindication, and more particularly in his Second Check to 
Antinomianism, to which is added a postscript, occasioned by 
his Third Check. In a letter to the Author, by ###### * 
# # * # A.M. London : 1772." 8vo. 71 pp. The letter 
is dated, "London, July 4, 1772," and the asterisks stand 
for the name of Rowland Hill, Mr. Richard Hill's impulsive 
and eccentric brother, who had taken his degree at Cam- 
bridge, had been refused orders by half-a-dozen bishops, and 
was now nearly twenty-seven years of age. Berridge and 
Whitefield had been his friends, and even Wesley had ap- 



233 



Wesley 1 s Designated Successor, 



[1/72- 



proved of his preaching among his Societies. 1 At present, 
he was in London, discoursing to immense congregations in 
Whitefield's two Metropolitan Chapels, and was resident in 
the Tabernacle House, in Moorfields. 2 There, no doubt, 
the pamphlet was written, which must now be noticed. 

He begins with a reference to his extensive preaching 
tours ; and states that he was frequently invited to preach 
in the meeting-houses of Wesley's Societies, and that this 
occasioned him considerable perplexity, for to preach against 
Wesley's " sentiments in his own congregations would be 
unfair." He continues : — 

"And yet, when I consider how many excellent Christians are con- 
tained in Mr. Wesley's Societies, whom I love as my own soul, and to 
whom I have frequently given promises of my assistance and labours, 
how will it grieve me to be constrained to withdraw from them, whom 
I so much honour and respect." 

Rowland Hill proceeds to say, that " hitherto he had de- 
clined having the least share in the late contentions." He 
was at Bristol in 1 77 1, when Mr. Shirley and his friends 
invaded Wesley's Conference, but he refused to join them, 
and left the city, for, he remarks, " Peace I love, but con- 
troversy I hate." He continues : — 

"Upon my return to Bristol, I saw your first publication. 3 As I 
dearly loved your character, I read it with great prejudice in your 
favour; but still, the tartness of the style, as well as the bad doctrine 
it contained, concerned me ; but, as I plainly perceived your intention 
was to make the ' Minutes ' speak as much Gospel as possible, though 
I was sorry for the performance, I felt a loving pity for the author. 
About the same time, I called upon Mr. Wesley, then in Bristol, and, 
in strong terms, expressed to him my concern about his ' Minutes' 
He told me that he looked upon the whole of them as truth, and that he 
should vindicate them as such. 

"Still my determination was to appear in no open separation from 
Mr. Wesley ; hoping that time would soften the edge of the dispute, 
and restore calmness and composure among contending parties ; but 
your second publication 4 compels me to believe that to be neutral any 



1 Sidney's "Life of Rowland Hill," p. 56. 

2 Ibid, p. 70. 

8 The "Vindication" of Wesley's Minutes. 

4 "Second Check to Antinomianism, in Three Letters," to Mr. 
Shirley. 



Age 42.] 



Mr. Rowland Hill. 



2 39 



longer will be criminal. You have now done sufficient to darken every 
gleam of hope of future tranquillity, by publishing such doctrine, and in 
such a spirit, as has kindled no small flame in the religious world." 

No doubt Rowland Hill was perfectly sincere when he 
said he hated controversy, and loved peace ; and yet, such 
is the tendency of polemical writing, Rowland Hill and his 
brother Richard became the principal fomentors of this 
controversial warfare. 

Having given what he calls " a simple narration of facts," 
Mr, Rowland Hill proceeds to say : — 

" I will now make some strictures principally upon your last perform- 
ance. This I pray God I may be enabled to do with meekness and 
judgment. I know there is no argument in banter, nor conclusion in 
sarcasm, nor divinity in a sneer: such weapons I wish totally to 
discard ; they are pitiful even for the world, but they are scandalous 
when used by a Christian. I hate such feeble aids, and will scorn to 
use them ; they would defile my soul, and stab the cause I mean to 
maintain. The meek and dove-like disposition of Christ, I humbly hope 
will teach me, while I write, to f>ity, not to abuse, the mistaken ; and 
meekly to deliver my sentiments, without having recourse to the low 
arts of slander and reflection. 

Rowland Hill had good intentions ; but whether he ful- 
filled them will be seen in the succeeding extracts. 

"After having first dressed up Mr. Shirley according to your own 
fancy, and branded him with the opprobrious name of Antinomian, you 
place him at the head of a set of monsters invented by yourself ; and, 
after having thus raised a hideous and unthought-of ghost, you remand 
it to the shades by your own spells and incantations of banter and 
contemft. ' ' 

" After having said so much as to place us in a manner even amongst 
murderers, on account of our principles of grace, it really shocks and 
almost disheartens me from following you any further. I will, therefore, 
now omit reminding you of the numberless sneers, taunts, and sarcasms, 
which so dreadfully decorate the whole of your performance ; they are 
nothing better than the infernal terms of darkness ; it is hateful to 
transcribe them ; let darkness be their doom.'''' 

" Consider in what detestable colours you have pictured us before the 
world. There is scarce an abomination but what we are charged with ; 
and our enemies triumph at the supposed discovery. You are the man, 
they say, that has been among the Calvinists, has found out their 
hypocrisy, and are now publishing against them. Numbers of them, 
to my knowledge, carry about your book in ill-natured triumph, and 
cast in our teeth, as certain truth, the dreadful sla?iders you have 



240 



Wesley* s Designated Successor. 



[1772. 



invented. In short, Sir, you have brought over us such a day of blas- 
phemy and rebuke as we never felt before." 

" Our characters now lie bleeding before you ; we smart severely 
under the cruelty of your pen ; and complain loudly against your great 
injustice. You have given us up to be trampled upon by the world, 
who, from your pretended discoveries, looks upon us all as hypocrites 
detected under the mask of religion. If you think us in error, for 
Christ's sake, sneer at us no more; though it may be sport to you, 
it is, in a manner, death to us. Learn the more Christian lesson to 
pity us, and pray for us, and try to set us right in love." 

Rowland Hill, no doubt, intended to avoid in his pam- 
phlet " the low art of slander /" but he failed in carrying 
out his purpose. Any one who has read, with candour, 
Fletcher's first and second Checks to Antinomianism, must 
admit that Mr. Hill's accusations are unfounded. Where 
had Fletcher slandered Rowland Hill, or any of his Calvin- 
istic friends ? It is true that he had treated some of the 
doctrines of the Calvinists with "banter" and with "sarcasm;" 
but his Calvinian friends, against whose tenets he had written, 
had, uniformly, been treated with respectful affection. Im- 
petuous Rowland improperly applied Fletcher's " banter" and 
" sarcasm" not to doctrines, as Fletcher had intended, but to 
the men who held them, himself and his godly friends in- 
cluded ; a thing from which Fletcher's loving soul revolted. 

The remainder of Rowland Hill's " Friendly Remarks " 
chiefly consists of animadversions, intended to show " the 
glaring inconsistencies and palpable mistakes " of Fletcher, 
in the doctrines he had defended and enforced. It would 
be an almost endless task to dwell upon the theological 
criticisms of Fletcher and his opponents. As might be 
expected, Rowland Hill, in attacking Fletcher's tenets, is 
often smart ; and, it must be added, often bitter. 

A reply to the pamphlets of Richard Hill and his brother 
Rowland became a necessity. Fletcher could not remain 
silent under such unfounded and undeserved imputations. 
Hence, though weary of the warfare, he at once resumed his 
pen, and began to prepare his " Fourth Check to Antino- 
mianism." The postscript of Rowland Hill's " Friendly 
Remarks," dated "July 4, 1772," states that the "Third 
Check" had just "made its appearance." The fourth was 
published before the year was ended, and bore the title of 



Age 43-] " Fbut th Check to Antinomianism" 241 



" Logica Genevensis ; or, a Fourth Check to Antinomianism, 
in which St. James's Pure Religion is defended against 
the Charges, and established upon the Concessions of Mr. 
Richard and Mr. Rowland Hill. In a Series of Letters to 
those Gentlemen, by the Vindicator of the Minutes. Bristol : 
Printed by William Pine, 1772." 12 mo. 245 pp. The 
letters are thirteen in number, and all of them are addressed 
to Mr. Richard Hill, except the ninth, which is addressed 
"to Mr. Rowland Hill," and the tenth and eleventh written 
to the two brothers conjointly. The thirteenth, and last, is 
dated, " Madeley, Nov. 15, 1772." 1 

Meanwhile, Wesley published "Some Remarks on Mr. 
Hill's Review of all the Doctrines taught by Mr. John 
Wesley." This is not the place to analyse Wesley's 1 2mo. 
pamphlet of 54 pages, but the following extract from it may 
be acceptable : — 

"With regard to Mr. Hill's objections to Mr. Fletcher, I refer all 
candid men to his own writings — his letters, entitled a ' First, Second, 
and Third Check to Antinomianism ; ' the rather, because there are 
very few of his arguments which Mr. Hill even attempts to answer. 
'Tis true he promises ' a full and particular answer to Mr. Fletcher's 
" Second Check to Antinomianism " ; ' but it will puzzle any one to find 
where that answer is except in the title-page. And if anything more is 
needful to be done, Mr. Fletcher is still able to answer for himself. 
But if he does, I would recommend to his consideration the advice 
formerly given by a wise man to his friend, ' See that you humble not 
yourself to that man ; it would hurt both him and the cause of God.' 
'Tis pity but he had considered it sooner, and he might have escaped 
some keen reflections. But he did not. He imagined when he spoke 
or wrote in the simplicity of his heart, that his opponents would have 
received his words in the same spirit wherein they were spoken ; but 
they turn them all into poison. He not only loses his sweet words, but 
they are turned into bitterness — are interpreted as mere S7ieer and 
sarcasm / A good lesson for me. I had designed to have transcribed 
Mr. Fletcher's character of Mr. Hill, and to have added a little thereto, 



1 The semi-infidel Monthly Review, which could hardly exist without 
sneering at evangelical religion, remarked concerning this Fourth Check 
to Antinomianism : — - 

"Mr. Fletcher continues to push the Calvinists with unremitting 
vigour. He here encounters two formidable adversaries at once. The 
veteran Wesley, who now, perhaps, thinks it time to retire from the 
well-fought field, is fortunate in having so zealous an auxiliary." 
{Monthly Review, 1773, p. 240.) 

16 



242 Wesley's Designated Successor. [1772. 



in hope of softening his spirit. But I see it is in vain ; as well might 
one hope to soften 

' Inexorable Pluto, king of shades.' 

Since he is capable of putting such a construction even upon Mr. 
Fletcher's gentleness and mildness ; since he ascribes even to him ' a 
pen dipped in gall,' what will he not ascribe tome? I have done 
therefore with humbling myself to these men — to Mr. Hill and his 
associates. I have humbled myself to them for these thirty years, but 
will do it no more. I have done with attempting to soften their spirits ; 
it is all lost labour " (pp. 3, 4). 

Having come to such a determination, it need not be 
added that Wesley's pamphlet was one of the most trenchant 
he ever published. 

Wesley was in Shropshire in the month of August, and 
probably had an interview with Fletcher. It is not unlikely 
that Fletcher accompanied Wesley in his journey to Bristol ; 
but if this were not the case, it is certain that he soon after 
followed him. Hence the following hitherto unpublished 
letter, written by John Pawson, an itinerant preacher of ten 
years' standing: — 

" Bristol, September 29, 1772. 

"My Very Dear Friend, — Mr. Wesley came here on Saturday, 
August 29, and has been with us ever since, but intends to leave Bristol 
next Monday " [October 5], " He seems to be as zealous and active 
in his Master's service as ever, and quite in good health. We have 
also had the great Mr. Fletcher here, but he is now returned to Madeley. 
He seems to be an eminent saint indeed. I had the satisfaction to 
hear him twice. He is a lively, zealous preacher ; the power of God 
seems to attend his word ; yet I admire him much more as a writer 
than as a preacher. Being a foreigner, there is a kind of roughness 
attends his language that is not grateful to an English hearer ; and the 
English not being his mother-tongue, he sometimes seems to be at a 
loss for words. Yet he certainly is a great and blessed man. 

" We have had very large congregations to hear both Mr. Wesley 
and Mr. Fletcher, especially the latter ; and I hope we shall see the 
fruit of their preaching in a little time. I trust that our gracious Lord 
will be with us, and that we shall have a prosperous year; though I 
apprehend it will be attended with greater difficulties than ever to keep 
the people together in Bristol. We have the Tabernacle 1 on one hand, 
and Mr. Janes, 2 who has a meeting in Tucker Street, on the other. 



1 Whitefield had a Tabernacle at Kingswood ; and Lady Huntingdon, 
in 1753, built one in Bristol, which Whitefield opened. 

2 Thomas Janes, who from 1767 to 1770 was one of Wesley's itinerants. 
His health not being equal to the rough work of a Methodist preacher 



Age 43.] Original Letter by John Pawson. 2$2> 



Mr. Roquet 1 also is disaffected towards us. He has been in London 
for some time with his dear friend Mr. Hill. One night he preached in 
the Foundery, where he gave universal offence by using many Calvin- 
istical phrases, and by telling the whole congregation that he knew 
there were whores and bawds even in the Bands 2 in Bristol. He said, 
' These eyes have seen it, and this heart has groaned on account of it.' 
How he will be when he returns I know not ; but these are the accounts 
we hear from London. Were it not that so many of our people are so 
exceedingly unstable, we need not fear any of these things ; but you 
well know that many of them have got itching ears, and will run about, 
say or do what we will. 

" Mr. Wesley has just published his answer to Mr. Hill. I suppose 
it will make the Calvinists exceeding angry ; but I think Mr. Fletcher's 
' Fourth Check,' which is now in the press, will make them much more 
so, as he does not spare them at all, but endeavours to show, in the 
clearest manner, the horrible consequences of their beloved opinions. 
He is writing something upon Perfection, the former part of which I 
have seen ; and I think he will set that doctrine in so Scriptural a light, 
as to stop the mouths of gainsayers." 

Fletcher dedicated his " Fourth Check to Antinomianism " 
" to all candid Calvinists in the Church of England." An 
extract from this dedication may be useful, as giving, in a 
brief form, some of the doctrines which Fletcher had defended 
and enforced, and which had so hugely offended his Calvin- 
istic friends. 

" They " [his opponents] " will try to frighten you from reading this 
book, by protesting that I throw down the foundation of Christianity 
and help Mr. Wesley to place works and merit on the Redeemer's 
throne. To this dreadful charge I answer: — 1. That I had rather 
my right hand should lose its cunning to all eternity, than use it a 
moment to detract from the Saviour's real glory. 2. That the strongest 
pleas I produce for holiness and good works are quotations from the 
Homilies of our own Church as well as from the Puritan divines, whom 
I cite preferably to others, because they held what you are taught to 
call the doctrines of grace. 3. That what I have said of those doctrines 
recommends itself to every unprejudiced person's reason and conscience. 
4. That my capital arguments in favour of practical Christianity are 



he settled as the pastor of a dissenting congregation in Bristol. He 
died in 1773- He was a man of considerable abilities, and compiled 
and published a volume which he entitled " The Beauties of the Poets." 

1 One of the first masters of Wesley's Kingswood School, but now an 
ordained clergyman of the Church of England, and curate of St. Wer- 
burgh in Bristol. He was an intimate friend of Lady Huntingdon. 

2 The Band-meetings of the Methodists, consisting of persons selected 
from the Methodist classes. 



2 4 4 



Wesley 1 s Designated Successor. 



[1772. 



founded upon our second justification by the evidence of good works in 
the great day ; a doctrine which my opponent himself cannot help 
assenting to. 5. That from first to last, when the meritorious cause of 
our justification is considered, we set works aside ; praying God not to 
enter into judgment with us, or weigh our merits, but to pardon our 
offences for Christ's sake ; and gladly ascribing the whole of our salva- 
tion to His alone merits, as much as Calvin or Dr. Crisp does. 6. That 
when the word meriting, deserving, or worthy, which our Lord uses 
again and again, is applied to good works or good men, we mean 
absolutely nothing but rewardable, or qualified for the reception of a 
gracious reward. And 7. That even this improper merit or reward- 
ableness of good works is entirely derived from Christ' s proper merit, 
who works what is good in us ; and from the gracious promise of God, 
who has freely engaged Himself to recompense the fruits of righteous- 
ness, which His own free grace enables us to produce." 

In the first eight of his letters, Fletcher quotes copiously 
from the Liturgy, Articles, and Homilies of the Church of 
England, and from the writings of Puritan divines. He also 
minutely examines Mr. Richard Hill's objections to his 
doctrines and to his Scriptural expositions. Up to this 
point there is a comparative absence of his cutting irony ; 
but^ there is a great amount of powerful and triumphant 
writing. 

In his ninth letter, addressed to Rowland Hill, he naturally 
enough lays aside the restraint he had put upon himself. 
Richard Hill was now a man of matured life, forty years of 
age ; his brother Rowland was a young man of only twenty- 
seven. The former had not been sparing in the use of 
acrimonious epithets ; the latter had been lavish. No wonder 
that Fletcher spared not his youthful opponent. He 
wrote : — 

" What reason have you to assert, as you do, that I ' have grossly 
misrepresented the Scriptures,'' and 'made universal havoc of. every 
truth of the Gospel' ? The first of these charges is heavy, the second 
dreadful. Let us see by what arguments they are supported. After 
throwing away a good part of your book in passing a long, Calvinian, 
juvenile sentence upon my spirit as a writer, you come at last to the 
point, and attempt to explain some of the Scriptures which you suppose 
I have 'misrepresented.' " 

Fletcher proceeds to examine what he calls "the argu- 
ments" of Rowland Hill ; and then concludes, as follows : — 
" Having answered your objections to what you justly call 'the prin- 



Age 43-1 Fletcher rebukes Rowland Hill. 



245 



cipal cause of the controversy among us,' I may make one or two obser- 
vations upon the friendliness of your ' Friendly Remarks.'' 

" Candid reader, if thou hast read my Checks without prejudice, and 
attentively compared them with the Word of God, wouldest thou ever 
think that the following lines contain an extract from the friendly 
sentence, which my young opponent passes upon them ? — ' Hard names, 
banter, sarcasm, sneer, abuse, bravado, low arts of slander, slanderous 
accusation, opprobrious name, ill-natured satire, odious, deformed, 
detestable colours, unfair and ungenerous treatment, terms void of truth, 
unmerciful condemnations, false humility, irritating spirit, provoking, 
uncharitable style, continual sneers, most odious appellations, abusive 
words, notorious scandalizing, lines too dreadful to be transcribed, 
unworthy of an answer, beneath contempt, most indecent ridicule, a 
wretched conclusion, as bitter as gall, and slanders which ought even 
to make a Turk blush.' 

" If thou canst not yet see, gentle reader, into the nature of Mr. 
Rowland Hill's ' Remarks,' peruse the following friendly sentences. 
' In regard to the fopperies of religion, you certainly differ from the 
Popish priest of Madeley. You have made universal havoc of every 
truth of the Gospel. You have invented dreadful slanders. You plenti- 
fully stigmatize many with the most unkindly language. You have 
blackened our principles, and scandalized our practice. You place us 
in a manner among murderers. It shocks me to follow you. Our 
characters lie bleeding under the cruelty of your pen, and complain 
loudly against your great injustice. Blush for the characters you have 
injured by the rashness and bitterness of your pen. You have invented 
a set of monsters, and raised a hideous ghost, by your own spells and 
incantations of banter and contempt. Numberless sneers, taunts, and 
sarcasms dreadfully decorate the whole of your performance : they are 
nothing better than infernal terms of darkness, which it is hateful to 
transcribe.' 

"When I cast my eyes upon this extract, I cannot help crying out, 
' If this is my antagonist's friendliness, alas ! what will be his dis- 
pleasure P And what have I done to deserve these tokens of Calvinian 
benevolence ? Why are these flowers of Geneva rhetoric so plentifully 
heaped upon my head ? 

" Sir, I do not intimate that I have done nothing displeasing to you. 
Far from insinuating it, I shall present my readers with a list of the 
manifold, but well-meant provocations, which have procured me your 
public correspondence. I say, well-meant provocations ; for all I want 
to provoke any one to is love and good works. 

" 1. I have written my Checks with the confidence with which the 
clear dictates of reason, and the full testimonies of Scripture, usually 
inspire those who love what they esteem truth more than they do their 
dearest friends. 

"2. After speaking most honourably of many Calvinists, even of all 
that are pious, I have taken the liberty to insinuate, that the schemes 
of finished salvation, and imputed righteousness, will no more save a 



246 Wesley' 's Designated Successor, [1772. 



Calvinist guilty oipractical Antinomianism, than the doctrine of general 
redemption will save an ungodly remonstrant. Thus I have made no 
difference between the backsliding elect of the Lock, 1 and the apostates 
of the Foundery, when death overtakes them in their sins, and in their 
blood. 

"3. I have maintained that our Lord did not speak an untruth when 
He said, In the day of judgment, by thy words shalt thou be justified; 
and that St. Paul did not propagate heresy when he wrote, Work out 
your own salvation. 

"4. I have sprinkled with the salt of irony your favourite doctrine 
('Friendly Remarks,' p. 39), 'Salvation wholly depends upon the purpose 
'of God according to election, without any respect to what may be in 
them,' i.e. the elect, f Now, Sir, as by the doctrine of undeniable conse- 
quences, he who receives a guinea with the king's head on the one side 
cannot but receive the lions on the other side ; so he that admits the 
preceding proposition, cannot but admit the inseparable counterpart, 
namely, the following proposition, which every attentive and unprejudiced 
person sees written in blood upon that side of Calvin's standard which— 



is generally kept out of sight, ' Damnation wholly depends upon the 
purpose of God according to reprobation, without respect to what may 
be in the reprobates.' Here is no 'inventing a monstrous creed,' but 
\rnerely turning the leaf of your own, and reading what is written there, 
hamely, damnation finished, evidently answering to finished salvation." 



Fletcher admits that he had used irony in his Checks, not, 
however, because he liked it, but because he found it needful. 
He writes : — 

" If I make use of irony in my Checks, it is not from 'spleen,'' but 
reason. It appears to me that the subject requires it, and that ridicu- 
lous error is to be turned out of the temple of truth, not only with 
scriptural argument, which is the sword of the Spirit, but also with 
mild irony, which is a proper scourge for a glaring and obstinate 
mistake." 

Holding such a view, he introduces, in one of the two 
letters addressed to Richard and Rowland Hill unitedly, an 
illustration of the absurdities involved in Calvinism, which, 
perhaps, is as severe as anything that his Checks contain. 
The extract is long, but must be given unabridged. 

/ " You decry ' illustrations,' and I do not wonder at it ; for they carry 
[ light into Babel, where it is not desired. The father of error begets 
I darkness and confusion. From darkness and confusion springs Cal- 
^vinism, who, wrapping himself up in some garments he has stolen from 



1 The Lock Hospital, where Martin Madan was Chaplain. 



Age 43-] Absurdities of Calvinism. 247 



the truth, deceives the nations, and gets himself reverenced in a dark^ 
temple, as if he were the pure and free Gospel. 

" To bring him to a shameful end, we need not stab him with the 
I dagger of ' calumny ,' or put him upon the rack of persecution. Let 
\ him only be dragged out of his obscurity, and brought unmasked to 
\ open light. The silent beams of truth will pierce him through ! Light 
'alone will torture him. to death, as the meridian sun does a bird of night ' 
that cannot fly from the gentle operation of its beams. 

" May the following illustration dart at least one luminous beam 
into the profound darkness in which your venerable Diana delights to 
dwell ! And may it show the Christian world that we do not ' slander 
you? when we assert, you inadvertently destroy God's law, and cast 
the Redeemer's crown to the ground: and that when yoM say, 'In 
point of justification ' (and consequently of condemnation) ' we have 
nothing to do with the law : we are tender the law as a rule of life, ' 
but not as a rule of judgment, you might as well say, 'We are under 
no law, and consequently no longer accountable for our actions.' 

" The King, whom I suppose in love with your doctrines of free grace 
and free wrath, by the advice of a predestinarian council and parliament, 
issues out a Gospel proclamation, directed, 'To all his dear subjects, 
and elect people, the English.' By this evangelical manifesto they are 
informed, 'That in consideration of the Prince of Wales's meritorious 
intercession, and perfect obedience to the laws of England, all the 
penalties annexed to the breaking of those laws are now abolished with 
respect to Englishmen : That His Majesty freely pardons all his sub- 
jects, who have been, are, or shall be guilty of adultery, murder, or trea- 
son: That all their crimes, "past, present, and to come, are for ever and 
for ever cancelled : " ' That, nevertheless, his loving subjects, who remain 
strangers to their privileges, shall still be served with sham warrants 
according to law, and frightened out of their wits, till they have learned 
to plead they are E?tglishmen {i.e. elect) : And then they shall set at 
defiance all legalists, that is, all those who shall dare to deal with them 
according to law : And that, excepting the case of the above-mentioned 
false prosecution of his chosen people, none of them shall ever be 
molested for the breach of any law.' 

" By the same supreme authority, it is likewise enacted, that all the 
laws shall continue in force against foreigners, {i.e. reprobates) whom 
the King and the Prince hate with everlasting hatred, and to whom 
they have agreed never to show mercy : That, accordingly, they shall 
be prosecuted to the utmost rigour of every statute, till they are all 
hanged or burned out of the way: And that, supposing no personal 
offence can be proved against them, it shall be lawful to hang them in 
chains for the crime of one of their forefathers, to set forth the King's 
wonderful justice, display his glorious sovereignty, and make his 
chosen people relish the better their sweet, distinguishing privileges as 
Englishmen. 

" Moreover, His Majesty, who loves order and harmony, charges his 
loving subjects to consider still the statutes of England, which are in 



248 Wesley* s Designated Successor, [1772. 



force against foreigners, as very good rules of life for the English, 
which they will do well to follow, but better to break ; because every 
breach of those rules will work for their good, and make them sing 
louder the faithfulness of the King, the goodness of the Prince, and the 
sweetness of this Gospel proclamation. 

"Again, as nothing is so displeasing to the King as legality, which 
he hates even more than extortion and whoredom ; lest any of his dear 
people, who have acted the part of a strumpet, robber, murderer, or 
traitor, should, through the remains of their inbred corruption, and 
ridiculous legality, mourn too deeply for breaking some of their rules 
of life, our gracious Monarch solemnly assures them, that, though he 
highly disapproves of adultery and murder, yet these breaches of rules 
are not worse, in his sight, than a wandering thought in speaking to 
him, or a moment's dulness in his service: That robbers, therefore, 
and traitors, adulterers and murderers, who are free-born Englishmen, 
need not be at all uneasy about losing his royal favour ; this being 
utterly impossible, because they always stand complete in the honesty, 
loyalty, chastity, and charity of the Prince. 

" Moreover, because the King changes not, whatever lengths the 
English go in immorality, he will always look upon them as his pleasant 
children, his dear people, and men after his own heart ; and that, on 
the other hand, whatsoever lengths foreigners go in pious morality, his 
gracious Majesty is determined still to consider them as hypocrites, 
vessels of wrath, and cursed children, for whom is reserved the black- 
ness of darkness for ever ; because he always views them completely 
guilty, and absolutely condemned in a certain robe of imrighteoitsness , 
woven thousands of years ago by one of their ancestors. This deadful 
sanbenito x His Majesty has thought fit to put upon them by imputation ; 
and in it, it is his good pleasure that they should hang in adamantine 
chains, or burn in fire unquenchable. 

"Finally, as foreigners are dangerous people, and may stir up His 
Majesty's subjects to rebellion, the English are informed that if any 
one of them, were he to come over from Geneva itself, shall dare to 
insinuate that this most gracious gospel proclamation is not according 
to equity, morality, and godliness, the first Englishman that meets him 
shall have full leave to brand him as a papist, without judge or jury, in 
the forehead or on the back, as he thinks best ; and that, till he is 
farther proceeded with according to the utmost severity of the law, the 
chosen nation shall be informed, in the Gospel Magazine, to beware of 
him as a man who ' scatters firebrands, arrows, and deaths,' and makes 
universal havoc of every article of this sweet gospel proclamation. 

" Given at Geneva, and signed by four of His Majesty's principal 
secretaries of state for the predestination department. 

" John Calvin. The Author of ' P. O.' 2 
Dr. Crisp. Rowland Hill." 



1 A frock, painted with flames and devils, in which heretics were 
burnt by the Inquisition. 

2 Richard Hill, the author of Pietas Oxonieiisis. 



Age 43.] 



Absitrdities of Calvinism . 



249 



To those not acquainted with the Calvinian controversy, 
this " illustration " may appear ungenerous and unfair ; but 
in reality, the doctrines it burlesques had all been asserted 
by Calvinists, and the theological points involved in them 
had all been exposed and controverted by Fletcher, in his 
" Checks to Antinomianism." No doubt the exposure was 
unpleasant, but the author of the Checks was not to be 
blamed for this. His work was done with an aching heart 
in the defence of truth and righteousness. 

Fletcher's twelfth Letter, addressed to Richard Hill alone, 
dwells altogether on the doctrine of Imputed Righteousness, 
which Fletcher describes as follows : — 

" Consistent Calvinists believe that if a man is elected, God absolutely 
imputes to him Christ's personal righteousness, i.e., the perfect obe- 
dience unto death which Christ performed upon earth. This is reckoned 
to him for obedience and righteousness, even while he is actually dis- 
obedient, and before he has a grain of inherent righteousness. They 
consider this imputation, as an unconditional and eternal act of grace, 
by which, not only a sinner's past sins, but his crimes present and to 
come, be they more or be they less, be they small or be they great, are 
for ever and for ever covered. He is eternally justified from all things. 
And, therefore, under this imputation, he is perfectly righteous before 
God, even while he commits adultery or murder. Or, to use your own 
expression, whatever lengths he runs, whatever deaths he falls into, 
' he always stands absolved, always complete in the everlasting 
righteousness of the Redeemer. ,' " 

This, to many Calvinists of the present day, will seem to 
be an extravagant caricature of one of their favourite dogmas, 
but it must not be overlooked that a great part of Fletcher's 
descriptive definition is actually taken from the published 
writings of Richard Hill. No wonder, therefore, that Fletcher, 
with stinging irony, proceeds to say : — 

" In point of justification, it matters not how unrighteous a believer 
actually is in himself; because the robe of Christ's personal righteous- 
ness, which, at his peril, he must not attempt to patch up with any 
personal righteousness of his own, is more than sufficient to adorn him 
from head to foot ; and he must be sure to appear before God in no 
other. In this rich garment of finished salvation, the greatest apostates 
shine brighter than angels, though they are ' in the?nselves black ' as 
the old murderer, and filthy as the brute that wallows in the mire. This 
'best robe,' as it is called, is full-trimmed with such phylacteries as 
these, — ' Once in grace, always in grace ; ' ' Once justified, eternally 



250 



Wesley* s Designated Successor. [1772. 



justified;' 'Once washed, always fair, undenled, and without spot.' 
And so great are the privileges of those who have it on, that they can 
range through all the bogs of sin, wade through all the puddles of 
iniquity, and roll themselves in the thickest mire of wickedness, without 
contracting the least spot of guilt, or speck of defilement." 

Of course, Fletcher found no difficulty in demolishing such 
luscious and pernicious nonsense as this. 

" If this doctrine is true," says he, "the Divine perfections suffer a 
general eclipse; one half of the Bible is erased; St. James's Epistle 
is made void; defiled religion justly passes for 1 pure gospel; ' the 
Calvinian doctrine of perseverance is true ; and barefaced Antinomianism 
is properly recommended as ' the doctrines of grace.'' " 

Fletcher's last letter, also addressed to "Richard Hill, Esq." 
alone, deals with the doctrine of Free-will His definition 
of the Methodist doctrine deserves quotation. 

"We never supposed that the natural will of fallen man is free to 
good, before it is more or less touched and rectified by grace. All we 
assert is, that, whether a man chooses good or evil, his will is free, or 
it does not deserve the name of will. It is as far from us to think that 
man, unassisted by Divine grace, is sufficient to will spiritual good ; as 
to suppose that when he wills it by grace he does not will it freely. 
And, therefore, agreeably to our Tenth Article, which you quote against 
us without the least reason, we steadily assert that we have no power 
to do good works, without the grace of God preventing its, not that 
we may have a free will, for this we always had in the above-mentioned 
sense, but that we may have a good will ; believing that, as confirmed 
saints and angels have a free will, though they have no evil will, so 
abandoned reprobates and devils have a free will, though they have no 
good will." 

These may appear to the cursory reader metaphysical 
niceties of no practical importance ; but, a hundred years 
ago, they were considered doctrines of vital interest. The 
difference between Fletcher and his Calvinian friends is well 
stated by himself : — 

"From our mutual concessions, it is evident we agree, 1. That the 
will is always free ; 2. That the will of man, considered as fallen in 
Adam, and unassisted by the grace of God, is only free to evil ; and, 
3. That when he is free to good, free to choose life, he has this from 
redeeming grace. 

"But, although we agree in those material points, the difference 
between us is still very considerable ; for, we assert, that through the 



Age 43.] 



Free- WilL 



251 



Mediator promised to all mankind in Adam, God, by His free grace, 
restores to ALL mankind a talent of free will to good, by which they 
are put in a capacity of choosing life or death, that is, of acquitting 
themselves well or ill, at their option, in their present state of trial. 

" This you utterly deny, maintaining that man is not in a state of 
probation ; and that as Christ died for none but the elect, none but they 
can ever have any degree of saving grace, that is, any free will to 
good. Hence, you conclude that all the elect are in a state of finished 
salvation ; and necessarily , infallibly, and irresistibly choose life ; 
while all the reprobates are shut up in a state of finished damnation ; 
and necessarily, infallibly, and irresistibly choose death. 

"We are obliged to oppose this doctrine, because it appears to us a 
doctrine of wrath, rather than a doctrine of grace. If we are not 
mistaken, it is opposite to the general tenor of the Scriptures, injurious 
to all the Divine perfections, and subversive of this fundamental truth of 
natural and revealed religion, God shall judge the world in righteous- 
ness. It is calculated to strengthen the carnal security of Laodicean 
professors, raise horrid anxieties in the minds of doubting Christians, 
and give damned spirits just ground to blaspheme to all eternity. 
Again, it withdraws from thinking sinners and judicious saints the 
helps which God has given them, by multitudes of conditional promises 
and threatenings, designed to work upon their hopes and fears. And, 
while it unnecessarily stumbles men of sense and hardens infidels, it 
affords wicked men rational excuses to continue in their sins, and gives 
desperate offenders full room to charge not only Adam, but God Him- 
self, with all their enormities." 

In this piteous way did the evangelical revivalists of the 
last century become divided. It was a mournful scene ; but, 
in the long run, it was over-ruled for good. Error was 
crushed, and truth rose triumphant. Meanwhile, on one 
side at least, great bitterness was engendered, and lamentable 
epithets were used. In the hottest of the fray, however, 
Fletcher, the chief combatant, never lost his temper. Hence, 
in concluding his " Fourth Check to Antinomianism," he 
wrote : — 

"Although we severely expose the mistakes of godly Calvinists, we 
sincerely love their persons, truly reverence their piety, and cordially 
rejoice in the success which attends their evangelical labours. And, 
although we cannot admit their logic, while they defend a bad cause 
with bad arguments, we should do them great injustice if we did not 
acknowledge that there have been, and are still among them, men 
eminent for good sense and good learning — men as remarkable for 
their skill in the art of logic, as for their deep acquaintance with the 
oracles of God. We thank them for their pious labours ; we ask the 
continuance, or the renewal, of their valuable love. We invite them to 



252 



Wesley's Designated Successor. 



[1772. 



our pulpits ; and assure them that, if they admit us into theirs, we 
shall do by them as we would be done by, — avoiding to touch there, 
or among their own people occasionally committed to our charge, upon 
the points of doctrine debated between us ; and reserving to ourselves 
the liberty of bearing our *full testimony in our own pulpits, and 
from the press, against Antinomianism and Pharisaism in all their 
shapes." 

There were other combatants in the field whose power 
over themselves was not so great and so praiseworthy. Walter 
Sellon was one of them, to whom Richard Hill addressed 
the following, hitherto unpublished, letter, just about the 
time when the Fourth Check of Fletcher first appeared : — 

" Hawkstone, December 24, 1772. 

" Dear Sir, — It will answer no end for you and me to continue our 
disputes, except that of stirring up the old man in us both. I believe 
you have the grace of God, and I am sure you are blest with a good 
understanding, which is well cultivated by acquired knowledge. With 
these endowments and qualifications, I trust it will please God to make 
you abundantly useful in the cause of Christ. I heartily forgive what- 
ever has savoured more of Walter Sellon than of Jesus Christ in your 
two letters to me ; and I beg the same on behalf of poor Richard Hill. 
Come, my dear Sir, let us pray for each other. If ever I have the 
pleasure of seeing you in the flesh, be assured that I shall embrace you 
in the bonds of brotherly love ; if not, I trust we shall one day meet in 
a better place, where there will be no other contention between us than 
who shall sing loudest, ' Grace, grace unto it ! ' Without undervaluing 
myself in any respect, this will certainly be the privilege of that amazing 
monument of mercy who desires always to subscribe himself, 

"Very dear Sir, your sincere and affectionate friend, in the best of 
bonds, Richard Hill." 

" To the Rev. Mr. Sellon, 

Ledsham, near Ferry Bridge, 
Yorkshire." 

This polemical chapter cannot be more fitly concluded 
than with these breathings of Christian love, to which may 
be added an extract from a letter which Fletcher wrote to 
Mr. Charles Perronet, who was suffering great affliction of 
body and mind : — 

" 1772, September 7. — My Very Dear Friend, — No cross, no crown; 
the heavier the cross, the brighter the crown. 

" 'O for a firm and lasting faith, 
To credit all the Almighty saith ! ' 



Age 43.] 



Breathings of Christian Love. 



253 



" Faith, I mean the evidence of things not seen, is a powerful cordial 
to support and exhilarate us under the heaviest pressures of pain and 
temptation. By faith, we live upon the invisible, eter7ial God ; we 
believe that in Him we live, move, and have our being ; insensibly we 
slide from self into God, from the visible into the invisible, from the 
carnal into the spiritual, from time into eternity. Here our spirits are 
ever young ; they live in and upon the very fountain of strength, 
sprightliness, and joy. Oh ! my dear friend, let us rest more upon 
the truth as it is in Jesus. Of late, I have been brought to feed more 
upon Jesus as the truth. I see more in Him in that character than I 
ever did. I see Christ the truth of my life, friends, relations, sense, 
food, raiment, light, fire, resting-place. All out of Him are but shadows. 
All in Him are blessed sacraments ; I mean visible signs of the fountain, 
or vehicles to convey the streams of inward grace." 1 



1 Benson's " Life of Fletcher. 




2 54 



Wesley's Designated Successor. 



[1772. 



CHAPTER XII. 



APPEAL TO MATTER OF FACT AND COMMON 



HE present chapter is a somewhat inconvenient break 



-A in the history of the Calvinian controversy ; but in 
maintaining chronological order, the inconvenience cannot 
be avoided. 

Fletcher's "Fourth Check to Antinomianism" was finished 
on November 15, 1772, and was published before the year 
was terminated. On a fly-leaf at the end of the first edition 
the following advertisement was printed : — 

"In a few days will be published, price two shillings, by the same 
author, ' An Appeal to Matter of Fact and Common Sense ; Or, A 
Rational Demonstration of Man's corrupt and lost Estate.' " 

In some respects, this is Fletcher's ablest publication, and 
certainly it has been his most popular. A " second edition, 
revised and enlarged," was printed a few months after the 
first, and, since then, it has been scores of times re-issued. 
As early as the year 1804, Joseph Benson, Fletcher's biogra- 
pher, remarked concerning it, " I hardly know a treatise that 
has been so universally read, or made so eminently useful." 
Even the Monthly Reviezv had nought to say against it. In 
the number for March, 1773, the editor's notice of it was 
the following : — 

"Although we cannot subscribe to all Mr. Fletcher's religious opinions, 
we think "there are abundance of good things in his writings ; and we 
have no doubt that he is warmly animated by a sincere and pious regard 
for the salvation of the souls that are committed to his charge, as well 
as for the spiritual welfare of mankind in general." 



sense: 



1772. 




Age 43.] Appeal to Matter of Fact and Common Sense. 255 



It is worthy of remark that besides being vended at 
Wesley's Foundery in London, the first edition was also "sold 
at the workhouse in Madeley Wood, Shropshire, for the benefit 
of 'the poor :" When the second edition was published, the 
workhouse, for some unknown reason, was not advertised. 
Probably parochial officials had interdicted the sale. 

Fletcher seems to have spent more time upon his "Appeal 
to Matter of Fact and Common Sense " than he did upon 
any of his " Checks to Antinomianism." Joseph Benson saw 
it in manuscript, and read most of it, a year before its publi- 
cation. Fletcher took it to Bristol and left it there ; but, 
before it was committed to the press, he requested that it 
might be returned to him at Madeley, to be further revised and 
improved. For many weeks, the manuscript was unheard of, 
" but/' says Benson, " he was quite easy under the appre- 
hended loss, which certainly would not have been a small 
one, as any person will judge who considers how much 
thought and time such a work must have cost him. It was 
found, however, by-and-by, had the finishing hand put to 
it, and was published to the conviction and edification of 
thousands." 1 

Fletcher's dedication of his book, highly characteristic, 
and embodying biographical facts, deserves attention. 

" To the principal inhabitants of the parish of Madeley, in the county 
of Salop. 

" Gentlemen, — You are no less entitled to my private labours than 
the inferior class of my parishioners. As you do not choose to partake 
with them of my evening instructions, I take the liberty to present you 
with some of my morning meditations. May these well-meant endeavours 
of my pen be more acceptable to you than those of my tongue ! And 
may you carefully read in your closets what you have perhaps inatten- 
tively heard in the church ! I appeal to the Searcher of hearts that I 
had rather impart truths than receive tithes. You kindly bestow the 
latter upon me ; grant me, I pray, the satisfaction of seeing you favour- 
ably receive the former, from, gentlemen, your affectionate minister and 
obedient servant, 

"Madeley, 1772. "J. Fletcher." 

Fletcher's principal tithe payers would not attend his 
vening services, and yet he was more anxious to teach them 



1 Benson's " Life of Fletcher." 



256 Wesley 1 s Designated Sticcessor, [1772. 



" the truth as it is in Jesus," than to receive their pelf. 
He loved their souls, though they were too high and 
mighty — that is, too worldly and ignorant — to appreciate 
his ministry. 

Fletcher rightly regarded the doctrine which he irrefutably 
establishes as of the highest importance. By large numbers 
of men, who considered themselves good Christians, it was 
treated with indifference, and in many instances it was flatly 
denied. With the exception of his " Notes on the Old and 
New Testaments," the largest as well as the ablest book 
Wesley ever wrote was on the same subject. His " Doctrine 
of Original Sin according to Scripture, Reason, and Experi- 
ence," was first published in 1757; and now, fifteen years 
later, his friend Fletcher, doubtless with his approval, used 
his great talents to the utmost in defending the same dogma. 
In both books, to some extent, the same line of argumenta- 
tion is followed ; but, of course, Fletcher's style is very different 
from that of Wesley. Both of them insisted that the doctrine 
is essential to the Christian religion, and that if it is not true, 
the Christian religion is not needed. In his preface Wesley 
wrote : — 

" If we take away this foundation, that man is by nature foolish and 
sinful, ' fallen short of the glorious image of God,' the Christian system 
falls at once ; nor will it deserve so honourable an appellation as that of 
a ' cunningly devised fable.' " 

Fletcher began his book with the same assertion. His 
first paragraph is as follows : — 

" In every religion, there is a principal truth or error, which, like the 
first link of a chain, necessarily draws after it all the parts with which 
it is essentially connected. This leading principle in Christianity, dis- 
tinguished from Deism, is the doctrine of our corrupt and lost estate ; 
for if man is not at variance with his Creator, what need of a Mediator 
between God and him ? If he is not a depraved, undone creature, what 
necessity of so wonderful a Restorer and Saviour as the Son of God ? 
If he is not enslaved to sin, why is he redeemed by Jesus Christ ? If he 
is not polluted, why must he he washed in the blood of thai immaculate 
Lamb ? If his soul is not disordered, what occasion is there for such 
a divine Physician ? If he is not helpless and miserable, why is he 
perpetually invited to secure the assistance and co7isolatio?zs of the 
Holy Spirit ? And, in a word, if he is not born in sin, why is a new 



Age 43.] 



The Doctrine of Original Sin. 



257 



birth so absolutely necessary, that Christ declares, with the most solemn 
asseverations, without it no man can see the kingdom of God ? 

" This doctrine then being of such importance that genuine Christi- 
anity stands or falls with it, it may be proper to state it at large ; and 
as this cannot be done in stronger and plainer words than those of the 
sacred writers and our pious Reformers, I beg leave to collect them and 
present the reader with a picture of our natural estate, drawn at full 
length by those ancient and masterly hands." 

Fletcher proceeds to do this, and with irrefutable argu- 
ments establishes his doctrine ; but in this part of his work 
there is no need to follow him. Indeed, his summary of 
Scripture proofs and his quotations from the Articles, Homi- 
lies, and Liturgy of the Church of England, do not fill more 
than about a dozen pages. His " second part" he begins 
as follows : — 

"As no man is bound to believe what is contrary to common sense, 
if the above-stated doctrine appears irrational, Scriptures, Articles, 
Homilies, and Liturgy are quoted in vain. When men of parts are 
pressed with their authority, they start from it as an imposition on their 
reason, and make as honourable a retreat as they possibly can. 

"Some, to extricate themselves at once, set the Bible aside as full 
of incredible assertions. Others, with more modesty, plead that the 
Scriptures have been frequently misunderstood, and are so in the present 
case. They put grammar, criticism, and common sense to the rack, 
to show that when the inspired writers say the human heart is desperately 
wicked, they mean that it is extremely good ; or at least like blank 
paper, ready to receive either the characters of virtue or of vice. With 
respect to the testimony of our Reformers, they would have you to 
understand that in this enlightened age we must leave their harsh, 
uncharitable sentiments to the old Puritans and the present Methodists. 

"That such objectors may subscribe as a solemn truth what they 
have hitherto rejected as a dangerous error, and that humbled sinners 
may see the propriety of a heart-felt repentance, and the absolute need 
of an Almighty Redeemer, they are here presented with some proofs of 
our depravity, taken from the astonishing severity of God's dispensations 
towards mankind." 

Limited space renders it impossible to give an outline of 
Fletcher's thirty-six arguments, all founded upon the following 
axiom : — 

" If we consider the Supreme Being as creating a world for the mani- 
festation of His glory, the display of His perfections, and the communi- 
cation of His happiness to an intelligent creature, whom He would 

17 



258 



Wesley* s Designated Successor. [1772- 



attach to Himself by the strongest ties of gratitude and love, we at 
once perceive that He never could form this earth and man in their 
present disordered, deplorable condition." 

An extract from the ninth argument will not be out of 
place, furnishing, as it does, a doleful picture of a large 
number of Fletcher's parishioners — the colliers, the barge- 
men, and the iron-workers. 

" To go no farther than this populous parish ; with what hardships 
and dangers do our indigent neighbours earn their bread ! See those 
who ransack the bowels of the earth to get the black mineral we burn ; 
how little is their lot preferable to the Spanish felons who work the 
golden mines ? 

" They take their leave of the light of the sun, and, suspended by a 
rope, are let down many fathoms perpendicularly towards the centre of 
the globe ; they traverse the rocks through which they have dug their 
horizontal ways. The murderer's cell is a palace in comparison of the 
black spot to which they repair; the vagrant's posture in the stocks is 
preferable to that in which they labour. 

" Form, if you can, an idea of the misery of men kneeling, stooping, 
or lying on one side, to toil all day in a confined place, where a child 
could hardly stand ; whilst a younger company, with their hands and 
feet on the black dusty ground, and a chain about their body, creep, 
and drag along, like four-footed beasts, heavy loads of the dirty mineral, 
through ways almost impassable to the curious observer. 

" In these low and dreary vaults, all the elements seem combined 
against them. Destructive damps, and clouds of noxious dust, infect 
the air they breathe. Sometimes water incessantly distils on their 
naked bodies ; or, bursting upon them in streams, drowns them, and 
deluges their work. At other times, pieces of detached rocks crush 
them to death ; or the earth, breaking in upon them, buries them alive. 
And frequently sulphureous vapours, kindled in an instant by the light 
of their candles, form subterraneous thunder and lightning. What a 
dreadful phenomenon ! How impetuous is the blast ! How fierce the 
rolling flames ! How intolerable the noisome smell ! How dreadful 
the continued roar ! How violent and fatal the explosion ! 

"Wonderful providence! Some of the unhappy men have time to 
prostrate themselves ; the fiery scourge grazes their backs ; the ground 
shields their breasts; they escape. See them wound up out of the 
blazing dungeon, and say if these are not brands plucked €ut of the 
fire. A pestiferous steam and clouds of suffocating smoke pursue 
them. Half dead themselves, they hold their dead or dying compan- 
ions in their trembling arms. Merciful God of Shadrach ! Kind Pro- 
tector of Meshach ! Mighty Deliverer of Abednego ! Patient Preserver 
of rebellious Jonah ! Will not these utter a song — a song of praise to 
Thee ? praise ardent as the flames they escape — lasting as the life Thou 
prolongest ? Alas, they refuse ! And some — O tell it not among the 



Age 43.] Bargemen and Ironworkers at Madeley. 259 



heathens, lest they for ever abhor the name of Christian — some return 
to the very pits where they have been branded with sulphureous fire by 
the warning hand of Providence, and there, sporting themselves again 
with the most infernal wishes, call aloud for a fire that cannot be 
quenched, and challenge the Almighty to cast them into hell, that 
bottomless pit whence there is no return. 

" Leave these black men at their perilous work, and see yonder barge- 
men haling that loaded vessel against wind and stream. Since the 
dawn of day, they have wrestled with the impetuous current ; and now 
that it almost overpowers them, how do they exert all their remaining 
strength, and strain their every nerve ? How are they bathed in sweat 
and rain ? Fastened to their lines as horses to their traces, wherein do 
they differ from the laborious brutes ? Not in an erect posture of the 
body, for, in the intenseness of their toil, they bend forward, their head 
is foremost, and their hands upon the ground. If there is any differ- 
ence, it consists in this : horses are indulged with a collar to save their 
breasts ; and these, as if theirs were not worth saving, draw without 
one ; the beasts tug in patient silence and mutual harmony ; but the 
men with loud contention and horrible imprecations. O sin, what hast 
thou done ? Is it not enough that these drudges should toil like brutes ? 
must they also curse one another like devils ? 

" If you have gone beyond the hearing of their impious oaths, stop 
to consider the sons of Vulcan confined to these forges and furnaces.. 
Is their lot much preferable ? A sultry air and clouds of. smoke and 
dust are the elements in which they labour. The confused noise of 
water falling, steam hissing, fire-engines workings wheels turning, files 
creaking, hammers beating, ore bursting, and bellows roaring, form the 
dismal concert that strikes the ears ; while a continual eruption of 
flames, ascending from the mouth of their artificial volcanoes, dazzle 
their eyes with a horrible glare. Massy bars of hot iron are the heavy 
tools they handle, cylinders of the first magnitude the enormous weights 
they heave, vessels full of melted meta,l the dangerous loads, they carry, 
streams of the same burning fluid the fiery rivers which they conduct 
into the deep cavities of their subterraneous moulds, and millions of 
flying sparks with a thousand drops of liquid, hissing iron, the horrible 
showers to which they are exposed. See them cast: you would think 
them in a bath and not in a furnace ; they bedew the burning sand with 
their streaming sweat ; nor are their wet garments dried up, either by the 
fierce fires they attend, or the fiery streams which they manage. Cer- 
tainly, of all men, these have best reason to remember the just sentence 
of an "offended God : ' In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat thy bread 
all the days of thy life.'" 

This long extract is given, not as a specimen of Fletcher's 
style of writing, for it is hardly that, but as a truthful de- 
scription of a large number of the poor creatures of whom 
he had the pastoral oversight. Many a passage of the 
highest kind of eloquence might be cited ; but the reader 



26o 



Wesley s Designated Successor. 



[1772. 



is recommended to buy and peruse the book himself. The 
following is presented, solely because it refers to growing 
evils, alarmingly prevalent among people who think them- 
selves religious : — 

" But all are not employed in sin and wickedness, for many go through 
a constant round of innocent diversions ; and these, at least, must be 
innocent and haftfty. Let us then consider the amusements of man- 
kind, and see how far our own pleasures demonstrate our innocence 
and happiness. 

"How excessively foolish are the plays of children! How full of 
mischief and cruelty the sports of boys ! How vain, foppish, and frothy 
the joys of young people ! And how much below the dignity of upright, 
pure creatures, the snares that persons of different sexes lay for each 
other ! When they are together, is not this their favourite amusement, 
till they are deservedly caught in the net which they imprudently 
spread ? But see them asunder. 

" Here a circle of idle women, supping a decoction of Indian herbs, 
talk or laugh all together, like so many chirping birds, or chattering 
monkeys, and, scandal excepted, every way to as good a purpose. And 
there, a club of graver men blow, by the hour, clouds of stinking smoke 
out of their mouths, or wash it down their throats with repeated draughts ~ 
of intoxicating liquors. The strong fumes have already reached their I 
. heads, and, while some stagger home, others triumphantly keep the J 
I field of excess ; though one is already stamped with the heaviness of 
the ox, another worked up to the fierceness and roar of the lion, and 
V_a third brought down to the filthiness of the vomiting dog. 

''Leave them at their manly sport, to follow those musical sounds, 
mixed with a noise of stamping, and you will find others profusely per- 
spiring, and violently fatiguing themselves, in skipping up and down a 
room for a whole night, and ridiculously turning their backs and faces 
to each other a hundred different ways. Would not a man of serrse^V 
prefer running ten miles upon an useful errand, to this useless manner 
of losing his rest, heating his blood, exhausting his spirits, unfitting 
himself for the duties of the following day, and laying the foundation of 
a putrid fever or a consumption, by breathing the midnight air cor- 
rupted by clouds of dust, by the unwholesome fumes of candles, and by 
the more pernicious steam that issues from the bodies of many persons, 
who use the strong- exercise in a confined place. 

" In the next room they are more quiet, but are they more rationally 
employed ? Why do they so earnestly rattle those ivory cubes ; and so 
anxiously study those packs of loose and spotted leaves ? Is happiness 
graven upon the one, or stamped upon the other ? Answer, ye game- 
sters, who curse your stars, as ye go home with an empty purse and 
a heart full of rage. 

" 'We hope there is no harm in taking an innocent game at cards,' 
reply a ridiculous party of superannuated ladies ; ' gain is not our aim ; 



Age 43.] 



England's Favourite Amusements. 



we only play to kill time.' You are not then so well employed as the 
foolish heathen emperor, who amused himself in killing troublesome 
flies and wearisome time together. The delight of rational creatures, 
much more of Christians on the brink of the grave, is to redeem, im- 
prove, and solidly enjoy time ; but yours, alas ! consists in the bare 
irreparable loss of that invaluable treasure. Oh ! what account will 
you give of the souls you neglect, and the talents you bury ? 

"And are public diversions better evidence of our innocence and 
happiness ? " 

Fletcher then proceeds to descant, in the same style, on 
theatrical performances, annual wakes, horse-racing, cock- 
fighting, man-fighting, and dog-fighting ; and then concludes 
his " Twenty-third Argument," as follows : — 

" These are thy favourite amusements, O England, thou centre of the 
civilized world, where reformed Christianity, deep-thinking wisdom, and 
polite learning, with all its refinements, have fixed their abode ! But, 
in the name of common sense, how can we clear them from the imputa- 
tion of absurdity, folly, and madness ? And by what means can they 
be reconciled, I will not say to the religion of the meek Jesus, but to 
the philosophy of a Plato, or the calm reason of any thinking man ? 
How perverted must be the taste, how irrational and cruel the diversions 
of barbarians, in other parts of the globe ! And how applicable to all 
the wise man's observation : ' Foolishness is bound up in the heart of 
a child, and madness in the breasts of the sons of men ! ' " 

Further extensive extracts from Fletcher's invaluable book 
need not be given here. What he calls his " Short Defence 
of the Oracles of God" cannot be perused by any candid 
reader without the conviction being produced that infidelity, 
in all its phases, is the most unreasonable theory in existence. 
From his thirty-six arguments, — unanswerable arguments, — 
he deduces ten inferences, namely: — 

" 1. If we are by nature in a corrupt and lost estate, the grand busi- 
ness of ministers is to warn us of our imminent danger. 2. If we are 
naturally depraved and condemned creatures, self-righteousness and 
pride are the most absurd and monstrous of all our sins. 3. If the 
corruption of mankind is universal and inveterate, no mere creature can 
deliver them from it. 4. If our guilt is immense, it cannot be expiated 
without a sacrifice of an infinite dignity. 5. If our spiritual maladies 
are both numerous and mortal, we cannot recover the spiritual health 
that we enjoyed in our first parents, but by the powerful help of our 
heavenly Physician, the second Adam. 6. If our nature is so completely 
fallen and totally helpless, that, in spiritual things, 'we are not sufficient 
of ourselves to think any thing' truly good ' as of ourselves,' it is plain 



262 



Wesley's Designated Successor. 



[1772. 



we stand in absolute need of the Spirit's assistance to enable us to pray, 
repent, believe, love, and obey aright. 7. If we are really and truly 
born in sin, our regeneration cannot be a mere metaphor, or a vain 
ceremony, but real and positive. 8. If the fall of mankind in Adam 
does not consist in a capricious imputation of his personal guilt, but in 
a real, present participation of his depravity, impotence, and misery, 
the salvation that believers have in Christ is not a capricious imputation 
of His personal righteousness, but a real, present participation of His 
purity, power, and blessedness, together with pardon and acceptance. 
9. If the corrupt nature, which sinners derive from Adam, spontaneously 
produces all the wickedness that overspreads the earth, the holy nature 
which believers receive from Christ is spontaneously productive of all 
the fruits of righteousness described in the oracles of God. 10. If 
corruption and sin work so powerfully and sensibly in the hearts of the 
unregenerate, we may, without deserving the name of enthusiasts, affirm 
that the regenerate are sensible of the powerful effects of Divine grace 
in their souls ; or, to use the words of our Seventeenth Article, we may 
say, 1 They feel in themselves the workings of the Spirit of Christ.' " 

When it is added that the doctrines, from which these 
inferences are drawn, are plainly stated, and fully proved, a 
good general idea of Fletcher's book will be given. His 
" Concluding Address to the Serious Reader, who inquires, 
What must I do to be saved ?" has been read by myriads, 
and cannot be read too much. The last two paragraphs of 
his treatise must be quoted : — 

" This book is chiefly recommended to disbelieving moralists, who 
deride the doctrine of salvation by grace through faith in the day of 
conversion, merely because they are not properly acquainted with our 
fallen and lost estate. And the Checks are chiefly designed for dis- 
believing Antinomians, who rise against the doctrine of a believer's 
salvation by grace through the works of faith in the great day, merely 
because they do not consider the indispensable necessity of evangelical 
obedience, and the nature of the day of judgment. 

" In the Appeal, the careless, self-conceited sinner is awakened and 
humbled. In the Address, the serious, humbled sinner is raised up 
and comforted. And in the Checks, the foolish virgin is re-awakened, 
the Laodicean believer reproved, the prodigal son lashed back to his 
father's house, and the upright believer animated to mend his pace in 
the way of faith working by love, and to perfect holiness in^the fear 
of God r 

Such is Fletcher's own accurate account of the important 
works he had hitherto committed to the press. 



Age 43-1 Wesley 's Proposal to Fletcher. 



263 



CHAPTER XIII. 

WESLEY S DESIGNATED SUCCESSOR : THE 
PENITENT THIEF: A DREADFUL PHENO- 
MENON, ETC., ETC. 

I773-- 

TO preserve chronological order, another chapter must be 
interjected before the history of the Calvinian contro- 
versy is resumed. 

In the month of January, 1773, Wesley sent to Fletcher 
the remarkable letter with which the present work commences. 
He wished Fletcher to relinquish his vicarage, and to put 
himself into training to become, after Wesley's death, the 
"copoecrTO)?" of the Methodists. Wesley's health, apparently, 
was failing. He was full of anxiety. " The body of the 
preachers," he wrote, " are not united : nor will any part of 
them submit to the rest ; so that either there must be one 
to preside over all, or the work will indeed come to an end." 
Subsequent events proved Wesley's fears to be unfounded ; 
but, for the time being, they were real, and disquieted him. 
He wished to train his successor, and to introduce him to 
the people. He specified what he considered to be the 
necessary qualifications of such a man, and regarded Fletcher 
as the only one of his wide acquaintance as possessing them. 
" Without conferring, therefore, with flesh and blood," said 
he, "come and strengthen the hands, comfort the heart, and 
share the labour of your affectionate friend and brother, 
John Wesley." 

Fletcher's reply to Wesley's most important proposal was 
as follows : — 

" Madeley, February 6, 1773. 
"Rev. and Dear Sir, — I hope the Lord, who has so wonderfully 
stood by you hitherto, will preserve you to see many of your sheep, and 
me among them, enter into rest. Should Providence call you first, I 



264 



Wesley 1 s Designated Successor. 



[1773- 



shall do my best, by the Lord's assistance, to help your brother to gather 
the wreck, and keep together those who are not absolutely bent to throw 
away the Methodist doctrines and discipline, as soon as he that now 
letteth is removed out of the way. Every help will then be necessary, 
and I shall not be backward to throw in my mite. 

" In the meantime, you sometimes need an assistant to serve tables, 
and occasionally to fill up a gap. Providence visibly appointed me to 
that office many years ago. And though it no less evidently called me 
hither, yet I have not been without doubt, especially for some years 
past, whether it would not be expedient that I should resume my office 
as your deacon ; not with any view of presiding over the Methodists 
after you ; but to ease you in your old age, and to be in the way of 
recovering, and, perhaps, doing more good. I have sometimes thought 
how shameful it was that no clergyman should join you, to keep in the 
Church the work God has enabled you to carry on therein. And, as 
the little estate I have in my own country is sufficient for my maintenance, 
I have thought I would, one day or other, offer you and the Methodists 
my free service. While my love of retirement made me linger, I was 
providentially led to do something in Lady Huntingdon's plan; but, 
being shut out there, it appears to me I am again called to my first 
work. 

"Nevertheless, I would not leave this place, without a fuller persuasion 
that the time is quite come. Not that God uses me much here, but I 
have not yet sufficiently cleared my conscience from the blood of all 
men. Meantime, I beg the Lord to guide me by His counsel, and make 
(^rne willing to go anywhere, or nowhere, to be anything, or nothing. 

"Help by your prayers, till you can bless by word of mouth, Rev. and 
dear Sir, your willing, though unprofitable servant in the Gospel, 

"J. Fletcher." 1 

Fletcher did not decline Wesley's proposal ; but he de- 
ferred coming to a decision until " the time was quite 
come." Whether the proposal was afterwards formally 
renewed, it is difficult to determine ; but Dr. Whitehead, 
who, from 1764 to 1769, had been one of the itinerant 
preachers, and who was well acquainted with both Wesley and 
his friend Fletcher, remarks concerning Wesley's request : — 

"This warm and sincere invitation to a situation not only respected 
but even reverenced by so large a body of people, must have been highly 
flattering to Mr. Fletcher ; especially as it came from a person he most 
sincerely loved ; whose superior abilities, learning, and labours he 
admired ; and to whose success in the ministry he wished to give every 
assistance in his power. But he well knew the embarrassments Mr. 
Wesley met with in the government of the preachers, though he alone, 



Wesley's " Life of Fletcher," p. 66. 



Age 43-] Wesley Respecting Fletcher and Wliitcfield. 265 



under the providence of God, had given existence to their present 
character, influence, and usefulness. He was also well acquainted 
with the mutual jealousies the preachers had of each other, and with 
their jarring interests : and, above all, with the general determination 
which prevailed among them not to be under the control of any one 
man after the death of Mr. Wesley. Under these circumstances, he 
saw nothing before him but darkness, storms, and tempests, with the 
most threatening dangers, especially if he should live to be alone in the 
office. He therefore determined not to launch his little bark on so 
tempestuous an ocean. 

" I cannot, however, but lament that he did not accept Mr. Wesley's 
invitation, as he would have done much good while he lived, and have 
prevented many of the evils which have since taken place." 1 

The evils which Dr. Whitehead deprecated were the 
resolutions enacted by the Methodist Conferences, held after 
Wesley's decease, respecting the preachers being allowed 
to administer the sacraments to their Societies, to hold 
services in Methodist chapels " in church hours," and other 
kindred matters. Of all this, Dr. Whitehead, an able and 
honest man, strongly disapproved, and hence his regret that 
Fletcher, by declining Wesley's invitation, had not helped 
to, at least, postpone such serious changes. 

Wesley foresaw the probability, and indeed the certainty, 
of such changes being made, and he also lamented Fletcher's 
decision. Thirteen years afterwards, in commenting upon 
Fletcher's letter to himself, he wrote : — 

" ' Providence,' says he, ' visibly appointed me to that office ' [Wesley's 
assistant] ' many years ago.' Is it any wonder then that he should now 
be in doubt whether he did right in confining himself to one spot ? The 
more I reflect upon it, the more I am convinced he had great reason to 
doubt this. I can never believe it was the will of God that such a 
burning and shining light should be hid under a bushel. No ; instead 
of being confined to a country village, it ought to have shone in every 
corner of our land. He was full as much called to sound an alarm 
through all the nation as Mr. Whitefield himself. Nay, abundantly 
more so ; seeing he was far better qualified for that important work. 
He had a more striking person, equally good breeding, an equally 
winning address, together with a richer flow of fancy, a stronger under- 
standing ; a far greater treasure of learning, both in languages, philo- 
sophy, philology, and divinity ; and, above all (which I can speak with 
fuller assurance, because I had a thorough knowledge both of one and 
the other), a more deep and constant communion with the Father, and 
with the Son, Jesus Christ. 



1 Whitehead's "Life of Wesley," vol. ii., p. 356. 



266 Wesley's Designated Successor. [1773. 



" And yet let not any one imagine that I depreciate Mr. Whitefield, 
or undervalue the grace of God and the extraordinary gifts which his 
great Master vouchsafed unto him. I believe he was highly favoured 
of God ; yea, that he was one of the most eminent ministers that hab 
appeared in England, or perhaps in the world, during the present 
century. Yet I must own I have known many fully equal to Mr. White-] 
field, both in holy tempers and holiness of conversation ; but one equal \ 
herein to Mr. Fletcher I have not known ; no, not in a life of fourscore-* 
years 1 

No wonder that Wesley lamented the course taken by his 
wished-for successor .; but it is rather difficult to say why 
Wesley should cast upon him loving blame for confining his 
light " to a country village." Fletcher's hands were full of 
literary works, by means of which he had defended, and 
continued to defend, the doctrines which it was the object 
of Wesley's life to propagate. Besides, in about a year 
after Wesley made his proposal, Fletcher's health began to 
fail, and never after that was his physical vigour such as 
to enable him to undertake the laborious itinerancy which 
Wesley contemplated and desired. Upon the whole, it is 
an open question whether Fletcher did not render greater 
service to Wesley and the Methodists by continuing his 
literary defence of their great and glorious doctrines than 
he would have done if he had accepted Wesley's invitation 
to go into training to become his successor. 

In other ways, however, besides his writings, he rendered 
great assistance to his friend. It was just after the time 
when Wesley wrote his important letter that an incident 
occurred which is worth relating. 

Samuel Bradburn, a soldier's son, was born at Gibraltar 
in 1 75 1. At twelve years of age he was brought to England ; 
at nineteen became a Methodist; and at twenty- one began 
to preach. During his residence at Gibraltar, he was sent 
to school at a penny a week ; but, on the terms being raised 
to three-halfpence, his mother took him away, finding it 
inconvenient to be at such an expense for her son's education. 
This was all the schooling that he had ; but he was taught 
to read at home, and before he was eight years old had 
committed the histories of Joseph and Samson to memory. 



Wesley's "Life of Fletcher," p. 68. 



Age 43.] Samuel Bradburn Visits Fletcher. 267 



On coming to England, his parents settled at Chester, and 
he himself was apprenticed to a shoemaker. In the week 
preceding Easter, in 1773, he set off to Madeley to have an 
interview with Fletcher, whose " Checks " he had been 
reading. On approaching the vicarage, he saw a man working 
in the garden, who, addressing the young shoemaker, said, 
" You see, my brother, a fulfilment of the curse, 1 In the 
sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread.' " Bradburn, stating 
who he was, said he had not been at Madeley before, and 
wished to be introduced to Mr. Fletcher. " I am John 
Fletcher," replied the amateur gardener. Bradburn, for the 
moment, was embarrassed ; but on saying that he had come 
to consult the vicar of Madeley respecting his being called 
to engage in the Christian ministry, Fletcher, with his cha- 
racteristic generosity, led him into his house, and requested 
him to become his guest. The invitation was gratefully 
accepted, and during his stay the young shoemaker was 
treated with paternal kindness. Bradburn, like his host, 
was an early riser, and every morning was employed in 
finding the texts of Scripture which Fletcher wished to use 
in the " Check " he was then writing, and in listening to 
Fletcher's exposition of them. When two or three hours 
had thus been spent, the students went into the garden of 
the vicarage and had a spell at any kind of work that needed 
attention. After this followed the plain gruel breakfast and 
domestic devotion. Then several more hours were employed 
in the vicar's study ; after which the master and the pupil 
set out to visit the parishioners. Every night in the week 
young Bradburn preached in colliers' cottages, or in the 
Methodist meeting-house, Fletcher standing by his side, and 
generally supplementing the sermon with additional remarks, 
delivered with delicate tenderness, and always concluded by 
a prayer. To the end of life, Bradburn thankfully acknow- 
ledged that he greatly owed his subsequent eminence to this 
Madeley visit. When he was leaving, the kind-hearted vicar 
said, " My little David, go ! and if you preach forty years, 
and save only a single soul, don't think your time and labour 
have been lost." Bradburn always spoke of his early friend 
as " Saint Fletcher ; " and often said, that when he looked 
at the vicar of Madeley he was almost ready to think the 



268 Wesley s Designated Successor. [1773- 



Lord Jesus Christ stood before him in the person of His 
servant ; and in hours of depression, when he found it difficult 
to pray, he was wont to sigh and cry, " God of Mr. Fletcher, 
bless me ! " 1 

The Methodist reader need not be told that Fletcher's 
humble pupil rose to great eminence. Unquestionably he 
was the greatest pulpit orator that Wesley ever had. Dr. 
Adam Clarke, who knew him well, once said to a young 
preacher, who wished his opinion concerning Bradburn, " I 
have never heard his equal ; I can furnish you with no 
adequate idea of his powers as an orator ; we have not a 
man among us that will support anything like a comparison 
with him. Another Bradburn must be created, and you 
must hear him for yourself, before you can receive a satis- 
factory answer to your inquiry." 

In 1 8 17, all the sermons that Bradburn had published, 
whether separately or in the Methodist Magazine, were col- 
lected, and published in a 12 mo. volume of 332 pages; 
but, as Dr. Abel Stevens well observes, " The eloquence of 
Bradburn, like that of Whitefield, could not be printed." 

John Fletcher rendered no small service to John Wesley 
and the Methodists by his brief training of the young shoe- 
maker in 1773. 

While writing his " Checks," Fletcher seems to have been 
obliged to curtail his correspondence with his friends. At 
all events, his published letters belonging to this period are 
few in number. The following were written in 1773. The 
first was addressed to his friend Mr. Vaughan, the officer of 
Excise at Atcham, with whom he became acquainted while 
he had the charge of the sons of Mr. Hill : — 



" My Very Dear Friend, — At the beginning of the week I received 
your kind letter, and your kind present at the end of it. For both I 
heartily thank you. Nevertheless, I could wish it were your last present, 
for I find it more blessed to give than to receive ; and in point of the 
good things of this life my body does not want much, and I can do with 
what is more common, and cheaper, than the rarities you ply me with. 

"Your bounty upon bounty reminds me of the repeated mercies of 
our God. They follow one another as wave does wave at sea ; and all 



(C 



Madeley, February 11, 1773. 




1 Miss Bradburn's MSS., and MS. by Mr. Harrison, of Chester. 



Age 44.] 



Letters in 1773. 



269 



to waft us to the pleasing shore of confidence and gratitude, where we 
can not only cast anchor near, but calmly stand on the Rock of Ages, 
and defy the rage of tempests. But you complain, you are not there ; 
billows of temptation drive you from the haven where you would be, and 
you cry out still, ' Oh wretched man / who shall deliver me ? ' 

" Here I would ask, Are you willing, really willing, to be delivered ? 
Is your sin, is the prevalence of temptation, a burden too heavy for you 
to bear ? If it is, if your complaint is not a kind of religious compliment, 
be of good cheer — only believe. Look up ! for your redemption draweth 
near. He is near that delivers, that justifies, that sanctifies you. Cast 
your soul upon Him. An act of faith will help you to a lift ; but o?ie act 
of faith will not do. Faith must be oztr life ; I mean in conjunction 
with its grand object. You cannot live by one breath ; }^ou must breathe 
on, and draw the electric, vital fire into your lungs together with the 
air. So you must believe, and draw the Divine power, the fire of Jesu's 
love, together with the truth of the Gospel, which is the blessed element 
in which believers live. 

" My kind Christian love to Mrs. Vaughan. Tell her I am filled with 
joy in thinking that, though we no more serve the same earthly master, 1 
yet we still serve the same heavenly one ; who will, ere long, admit us 
to sit with Abraham himself, if we hold fast our confidence to the end. 

" Beware of the world. If you have losses, be not cast down, nor 
root in the earth with more might and main to repair them. If pros- 
perity smiles upon you, you are in double danger. Think, my friend, 
that earthly prosperity is like a coloured cloud, which passes away and 
is soon lost in the shades of night and death. Beware of hurry. 
Martha, Martha, one thing is needful ! Choose it, stand to your choice, 
and the good part shall not be taken from you by sickness or death. 
God bless you and yours with all that makes for His glory and your 
peace. 

" I am, my dear friend, yours, etc., 

"J. Fletcher." 2 

The following extracts are taken from a letter addressed 
to James Ireland, Esq., of Brislington, who had suggested to 
Fletcher the expediency of publishing in the French lan- 
guage his " Appeal to Matter of Fact and Common Sense." 

"Madeley, September 21, 1773. 
"My Very Dear Friend, — I have considered what you say about 
the translation of my 'Appeal; 7 and I think I might do it some day; 
nay, I tried to turn a paragraph or two the day after I received your 
letter, but found it would be a difficult, if not an impossible work for me. 



1 From this, it would appear that Mrs. Vaughan, previous to her 
marriage, had been in the employ of Mr. Hill, of Tern Hall. 

2 Letters, 1791, p. 216. 



27C 



Wesley s Designated Successor. 



[1773. 



I am sure I could not do it abroad. On a journey, I am just like a cask 
of wine — I am good for nothing till I have some time to settle. 

"What you say about Mr. Wesley adds, weight to your kind argu- 
ments. My spiritual circumstances are what I must look at. I tremble 
lest outward things should hurt me. The multiplicity of objects and 
avocations, which attend travelling, is not suited to my case. I think, 
all things considered, I should sin against my conscience in going, 
unless- 1 had a call from necessity, or from clearer providences. 

(i My last ' Check ' will be as much in behalf of free grace as of 
holiness ; so I hope, upon that plan, all the candid and moderate will 
be able to shake hands. It will be of a reconciling nature ; and I call 
it an ' Equal Check to Pharisaism and Antinomianism.' 

I see life so short, and time passes away with such rapidity, that I 
should be very glad to spend it in solemn prayer ; but it is necessary 
that a man should have some exterior occupation. The chief thing is to 
employ ourselves, profitably. My throat is not formed for the labours 
of preaching. When I have preached three or four times together, it 
inflames and fills up ; and the efforts, which I am then obliged to 
make, heat' my blood. Thus, I am, by nature, as well as by the cir- 
cumstances I am in, obliged to employ my time in writing a little. 
O that I may be enabled to do it to the glory of God ! 

" Let us love this good God, who hath '■ so loved the world, that He 
gave His Only-begotten Son that we might not perish, but have ever- 
lasting life.' How sweet is it, on our knees, to receive this Jesus, this 
heavenly gift, and to offer our praises and thanks to our heavenly 
Father ! The Lord teaches me four lessons ; the first is to be thankful 
that I am not in hell ; the second, to become nothing before Him ; 
the third, to receive the gift of God ; and the fourth is to feel my want 
of the Spirit of Jesus, and to wait for it. These four lessons are very 
deep. O when shall I have learned them ! Let us go together to the 
school of Jesus, and learn to be meek and lowly in heart. Adieu ! 

"J. Fletcher." 1 

The above is the first time that Fletcher complains of his 
throat. This affection, in itself, apart from the other reason 
he mentions, was quite sufficient to justify his hesitancy in 
complying with Wesley's request to devote himself to the 
itinerancy, and to train himself to become Wesley's successor. 

Before returning to the Calvinian controversy, two other 
incidents, belonging to the year 1773, must be mentioned. 

" John Wilkes," says Fletcher, "was born at Darlaston. His father 
dying when he was a child, his mother bound him an apprentice to a 
collier, who delighted in cock-fighting, and who was killed by a quan- 
tity of coals falling upon him in the pit. The collier's widow, being 

1 Letters, 1791, p. 218. 



Age 44] John Wilkes, the Peiritent Thief. 271 



unable to manage Wilkes, released him from his apprenticeship for a 
trifling sum of money. He began to steal fowls, that he might have the 
pleasure of fighting those that would fight, and eating those that would 
not. Two or three years ago he was committed to Stafford jail, and 
soon after publicly whipped for that offence. From breaking into hen- 
roosts, he proceeded to break into and to rob the dwelling-house of a 
widow at Darlaston ; and, going upon the highway, he robbed a man 
of his watch and some money. He was taken, and recommitted to 
Stafford jail. He took his trial at the last assizes ; and, being found 
guilty of the above-mentioned robberies, received sentence of death, 
with another young man, who had set fire to some barns, and a stack 
of hay." 

John Wilkes' eldest sister was Fletcher's servant^ and to 
her the convict wrote the following : — 

"- Stafford Jail, March 17, 1773. 
"This informs you of my being a convict under sentence of death. 
I beg you will endeavour to prevail on Mr. Fletcher to grant me his 
interest for a reprieve, by getting me recommended to his majesty's 
mercy. And I tenderly beg you will come over and see me here in 
a few days, who am your poor unfortunate brother, 

"John Wilkes." 

Fletcher declined to interfere, but wrote a long letter to 
the convict, dated " Madeley, March 23, 1773." He says 

"John Wilkes, — Your sister desiring me to make application to 
some person in power, to get you reprieved for transportation, I take 
this first opportunity of informing you that I was once concerned in 
saving a young man from the gallows, because he was condemned for 
his first offence, which was robbing his master of money, and that I 
had no thanks, but many upbraidings for my pains ; the poor creature 
having turned out very bad, done much mischief before he left England, 
and being spared, I fear, only to hurt his fellow-creatures, and fill up 
the measure of his iniquities. 

"Besides, you know, John, that your crimes are of the most capital 
nature. You are not only a housebreaker, but a highwayman, and a 
very notorious offender. You know you have committed crimes enough 
to hang two or three men, perhaps half-a-dozen.. And so far as I can 
gather from a variety of circumstances, you are the very person that 
broke open my house over the way, and robbed the poor widow who 
lives in it. If you committed that robbery, I desire you to confess it 
before you leave this world ; for ' he that confesseth and forsaketh his 
sins shall obtain mercy ; ' while he that tells lies to conceal them, pulls 
down double vengeance upon his guilty head. 

" But whether you committed that robbery or not, I earnestly desire 
that you will submit to your sentence. I neither can nor will meddle 
in that affair ; nor have I any probability of success if I did. Apply 



272 Wesley' 's Designated Successor. [1773. 



then yourself, night and day, to the King of heaven for grace and 
mercy. If you cry to Him from the bottom of your heart, as a con- 
demned dying man, who deserves hell as well as the gallows ; if you 
sincerely confess your crimes, and beg the Son of God, the Lord Jesus 
Christ, to intercede for you, it is not too late to get your soul reprieved. 
He will speak for you to God Almighty ; He will pardon all your sins ; 
He will wash you in His most precious blood ; He will stand by you in 
your extremity; He will deliver you out of the hands of the hellish 
executioner ; and, though you have lived the life of the wicked, He will 
help you to die the death of the penitent. He can feel for poor con- 
demned thieves ; for He himself was condemned to be hanged on a 
tree ; not indeed for His own sins, for He never transgressed, but for 
your crimes and mine." 

"On Saturday, March 27," continues Fletcher in his narrative, "I 
gave a few lines for the keeper of Stafford jail, to Sarah Wilkes, the 
malefactor's sister, and to Elizabeth Childs, a serious woman, whom 
she had got to bear her company ; and, when I had recommended in 
prayer the condemned criminals to the Redeemer's compassion, and 
their feeble visitors to the protection of Him Who can give wisdom to 
the simple, they set out to see John Wilkes, and administer some spirit- 
ual comfort to him before he launched into eternity." 

The poor women met with a rough reception at Stafford 
prison. The jailer, a fair specimen of officials in other 
prisons, at that period, said, " What do you want with John 
Wilkes ? to preach him a sermon, and sing psalms ? I know 
very well what you are, a parcel of canting hypocrites." 

Sarah Wilkes and Elizabeth Childs showed themselves 
to be apt pupils of the Vicar of Madeley. In the Journal of 
their nine days' visit they wrote : — 

"We were much discouraged at the jailer's behaviour. So we agreed 
to lay the matter before God in prayer, and beg of Him that He would 
touch the jailer's heart, and cause him to let us in. The next morning, 
which was Sunday, after begging hard for grace, wisdom, and courage, 
we went to the prison ; and, to our great surprise, the turnkey opened 
the door, and, without speaking a word, took us straight to the con- 
demned men, and let us be with them as long as we thought proper ; 
a liberty which we were allowed twice a day till they suffered." 

John W r ilkes confessed to the two women thaf he had 
robbed the house at Madeley, in which the poor widow 
lived. He became a penitent, The nine days' Journal of 
his sister and Elizabeth Childs concludes thus : — 

" Saturday, April 3, the day of his execution, John Wilkes was ex- 
ceeding happy, and employed in breathing out prayers and praises to 



Age 43-] John Wilkes, the Penitent Thief. 273 



God. In the morning, we spent about two hours with him and. his 
fellow-prisoner, praying and praising together in their dungeon, with 
much brokenness of heart, and many tears of joy and sorrow ; for we 
were both persuaded that John Wilkes had saving faith, and an un- 
shaken well-grounded confidence that God would take him to glory. 

"About two hours before the execution, which was between four and 
five in the afternoon, his sister asked, ' Dost thou find thyself happy in 
the Lord ?' To which he answered, ' Yes, I do, I do, more and more.' 

"When they were come to the place of execution, John Wilkes's 
companion desired the spectators, especially young people, to take 
warning by them ; which was the more affecting, as he was supposed 
to be only about twenty years old, and John Wilkes was not above 
nineteen. They sang and prayed some time under the gallows ; and 
the last words John Wilkes was heard to speak were, ' Lord, from this 
place receive me into Thy heavenly kingdom ! ' " 

Some will condemn Fletcher's action, or rather inaction, 
in the case of John Wilkes ; but, a hundred years ago, public 
opinion respecting crimes, criminals, and criminal punishment 
was widely different from the public opinion of the present 
day. It certainly seems to be a savage thing to hang a 
youth of nineteen years of age for thieving ; but the law of 
the land authorized this ; and Fletcher evidently had but 
little hope of any good arising from reprievement in a case 
like that of Wilkes. Perhaps he was right, or perhaps he 
was wrong. At all events, Wilkes became a penitent thief, 
and, as such, his sister and his sister's master had reason to 
rejoice and to give thanks. Fletcher immediately published 
a pamphlet on the occasion with the title, " The Penitent 
Thief ; or, a Narrative of Two Women, fearing God, who 
Visited in Prison a Highwayman, executed at Stafford, 
April 3, 1773. With a Letter to a Condemned Malefactor. 
And a Penitential Office, for either a true Churchman, or a 
dying Criminal, extracted from the Scriptures and the Esta- 
blished Liturgy." 

Nothing more need be said, except that the " Penitential 
Office" was compiled " entirely from the Scriptures and the 
Liturgy of the Church of England ;" that it was suitable for 
either a living sinner or a dying thief ; and that, to excite, 
exercise, and increase his own repentance, Fletcher himself 
was accustomed to use it in his private devotions. 

A few weeks after the execution of John Wilkes another 

18 



274 Wesley's Designated Successor. [1773. 



event occurred, which must be noticed. The following is 
taken from Lloyd's Evening Post, of June 11, 1773 : — 

"An authentic account of the earthquake at the Birches, about a mile 
above the bottom of Coalbrookdale, Shropshire. 

" In the dead of the night, between Tuesday the 25th and Wednesday 
the 26th ult., Samuel Wilcocks's wife, who lived in a small house at the 
Birches, was sitting up in bed, to take care of one of her children, who 
was ill, when she perceived the bed shake under her, and observed some 
balm tea in a cup to be so agitated that it was spilled. 

On Thursday morning, the 27th, Samuel Wilcocks and John Roberts 
(who likewise lived in the house at the Birches) got up about four o'clock, 
and, opening their window to see what the weather was, observed a crack 
in the ground four or five inches wide, and a field sown with oats heaving 
and rolling like waves of water. The trees moved as if blown with wind, 
though the air was calm and serene. The Severn (in which at that 
time was a considerable flood) was much agitated, and seemed to run 
upwards. The house shook ; and, in a great fright, Wilcocks and 
Roberts roused the rest of the family, and ran out of doors. Immediately, 
about thirty acres of land, with the hedges and trees standing, moved 
with great force and swiftness towards the Severn. Near the river was 
a small wood, in which grew twenty large oaks. The wood was pushed 
with such velocity into the channel of the Severn, that it drove the bed 
of the river on the opposite shore many feet above the surface of the 
water, where it lodged, as did one side of the wood. The current of 
the river was instantly stopped. This occasioned a great inundation 
above, and so sudden a fall below, that many fish were left on dry land. 
The river took its course over a large meadow, and in three days wore 
a navigable channel. A turnpike road was moved more than thirty 
yards. A barn was carried about the same distance, and was left as a 
heap of rubbish in a large chasm. The house ' ' (in which Wilcocks lived) 
" received but little damage ; but the garden hedge was removed about 
fifty yards. Several long and deep chasms are formed in the upper 
part of the land from fourteen to upwards of thirty yards wide, in which 
are many pyramids of earth standing, with the green turf remaining on 
the tops of some of them. The land on both sides the river is the 
property of Walter Acton Moseley, Esq., who, we hear, has sustained 
a damage of six or seven hundred pounds. 

" On Friday, the 28th, the Rev. Mr. Fletcher, Vicar of Madeley, 
preached a sermon upon the ground, to an audience of more than one 
thousand people. In a most pathetic discourse, he expatiated on the 
works of Divine Providence ; recommended his hearers to prepare for 
the last great and awful day ; and expressed the hope that the present 
dreadful scene would prove a sufficient warning to them. 

"T. Addenbrooke. 

" Coalbi'ooke Dale, 
June 4, 1773." 



Age 43.3 Fletcher 1 s Sermon concerning the Earthquake. 275 



So long an extract from a newspaper would hardly have 
been proper in a " Life of Fletcher," but for the fact that 
Fletcher himself immediately published a bulky pamphlet of 
104 pages, on the same event. Its long title was the fol- 
lowing : " A Dreadful Phenomenon described and improved. 
Being a Particular Account of the Sudden Stoppage of the 
River Severn, and of the Terrible Desolation that happened 
at the Birches, between Coalbrook Dale and Buildwas Bridge, 
in Shropshire, on Thursday morning, May 27, 1773. And 
the Substance of a Sermon, preached the next day, on the 
ruins, to a vast concourse of spectators. By John Fletcher, 
Vicar of Madeley, in Shropshire, and Chaplain to the Right 
Hon. the Earl of Buchan. Shrewsbury, 1773. Price, One 
Shilling." 

Thirty-three pages of Fletcher's publication are filled with 
a description of the "Dreadful Phenomenon." This is dated 
"Madeley, July 6, 1773." No useful purpose would be 
served by quoting Fletcher's account of what he heard and 
saw ; but the following extract will show how he was led to 
preach his sermon : — 

" Should the reader desire to know why I preached upon the ruins, I 
will ingenuously tell him. The day the earth opened at the Birches, as 
I considered one of the chasms, several of my parishioners gathered 
around me. I observed to them, that, the sight before us was a remark- 
able confirmation of the first argument of a book called, ' An Appeal to 
Matter of Fact, or a Rational Demonstration of Man's Fallen and Lost 
Estate,' which I had just published, as a last effort to awaken to a sense 
of the fear of God the careless gentlemen of my parish, to whom it is 
dedicated. Having a few copies about me, which I was going to present 
to some of them, I begged leave to read that argument. 

" I concluded my reading and remarks by thanksgiving and prayer ; 
and, perceiving that seriousness sat upon all faces, I told the people, 
that, if they would come again the next evening to the same place, I 
would endeavour to improve the loud call to repentance, which God had 
given us that day. 

" They readily consented; and when I came, at the time appointed, 
to my great surprise, I found a vast concourse of people, and among 
them several of my parishioners, who had never been at church in all 
their life. After a prayer and thanksgiving suitable to the uncommon 
circumstances, I preached a sermon, of which, so far as I can recollect, 
the reader may find the substance, with some additions, in the following 
pages. May it have a better effect upon him than it had upon some 
of the gentlemen who heard it ! Instead of a prayer-book, they pulled 



276 



Wesley' K s Designated Successor. [1773- 



out their favourite companion, a bottle ; and imparted the strong contents 
to each other, as heartily as I did the awful contents of my text to the 
decent ^axt of the congregation. Gentle reader, receive them as cordially 
as they did their stupifying antidote, and I ask no more." 

This, certainly, was a disgraceful scene, but not so dis- 
graceful as that which occurred a few days afterwards, and 
^which Fletcher, in a foot-note, relates. Among the many 
I thousands, who came to view the results of the earthquake, 
; were a company from Bridgnorth, headed by a young 
/ clergyman, who " brought music along with them, and set a- 
dancing upon the very place where the awful earthquake 
had happened." 

The text of Fletcher's almost impromptu sermon was 
Numb. xvi. 30 — 34. The sermon itself occupies seventy 
pages. Addressing the irreverent " gentlemen" before him, 
the bold preacher cried : — 

" O ye Christian Dathans, ye lofty Abirams, ye, who, like those proud 
Israelites, are in your respective parishes 'princes of the assembly, 
famous in the congregation, men of renown? the eyes of this populous 
neighbourhood are upon you, especially the eyes of poor illiterate colliers, 
waggoners, and watermen. Do you not consider that they mind your 
examples, rather than God's precepts? Are you not aware that they 
follow you as a bleating flock follows the first wandering sheep ? Because 
they cannot read the sacred pages, or even tell the first letters of the 
alphabet, think you they cannot read secret conte?nftt of Almighty God 
on the sleeves, in which they sometimes see you laugh at godliness ? 
And suppose ye, they cannot make out open pollution of His Sabbaths 
when they see the remarkable seats, which you so frequently leave empty 
at church ? Do you not know that the lessons of practical atheism, 
which you thus give them in the free school of bad example, they learn 
without delay, practise without remorse, and teach others with unwearied 
diligence ? Alas ! the pattern of indevotion, which you set in the house 
of God, carries, before you are aware, its baneful influence through a 
hundred private houses. Oh ! how many are now numbered among the 
dead, who have taken to the ways of destruction by following you / 
How many are yet unborn, upon whom a curse will be entailed, in con- 
sequence of the spreading plague of irreligion, which their parents have 
caught from you / And shall not their blood be, more or less, required 
at your hands ? ' Shall not I visit for these things, saith the Lord ? 
Shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this ?' " 

This was fearless speaking, and not likely to increase 
Fletcher's popularity among his rich, dissolute parishioners. 
The following extract is struck upon another key : — 



Age 430 Fletcher's Sermon concerning the Earthquake. 277 



"Although we cannot all ' sing the song of the Lamb' yet, glory be 
to God ! we all consider the patience of our offended Creator, who, 
upon these ruins, invites us to repent and live. The earth, in the days 
of Moses, opened her mouth, and dreadfully swallowed up two families. 
The earth yesterday opened her mouth, probably far wider, and yet 
the only two families that lived here were suffered to make their escape. 
Allelujah ! Praise the Lord ! Multitudes of fishes have perished on 
dry ground, and myriads of land insects in the waters ; and yet we, 
sinful insects before God, have neither been drowned in yesterday's 
flood, nor buried in these chasms: Allelujah! God's tremendous axe 
has been lifted up ; some of yonder green trees have been struck ; and 
we, who are dry trees, we, cumberers of the ground, are graciously 
spared ; Allelujah ! The house of Dathan and Abiram, with all that 
appertained unto them, descended into the pit of destruction ; and we, 
who are loaded with mountains of sins, stand yet upon firm ground, 
with all our friends. Allelujah ! God, who might have commanded 
the earth to swallow up a thronged play-house, the royal exchange, a 
crowded cathedral, the parliament house, or the king's palace, has 
graciously commanded an empty barn to sink, and give us the alarm. 
Allelujah ! He might have ordered such a tract of land as this, to 
heave, move, and open in the centre of our populous cities ; but mercy 
has inclined Him to fix upon this solitary place. Allelujah ! He might 
have suffered the road and the river to be overthrown, when cursing 
drivers passed with their horses, and blaspheming watermen with their 
barges ; but His compassion made Him strike the warning blow with 
all possible tenderness. ' O that men would therefore praise the Lord 
for His goodness, and declare the wonders that He does for the children 
of men ! ' '"' 

These two extracts from the sermon preached on this 
remarkable occasion must suffice ; but one of Fletcher's 
foot-notes may be added : — 

"A woman, thirty-five years of age, passing before a looking-glass 
the day after she heard this sermon, was surprised to see an unusual 
paleness upon her face. She called her husband, told him she was 
a dying woman, and actually died in a quarter of an hour. She heard 
me on the Friday, and I buried her the Monday following. Another 
middle-aged person, who was also among my hearers, was buried the 
next day in the next parish. How soon may we be called to give an 
account of what we speak or hear, write or read / ' ' 

The anti-evangelical Monthly Review of November, 1773, 
in noticing Fletcher's publication, remarked : — 

"Mr. Fletcher, who is a man of learning and considerable abilities, 
has given us a curious account of this phenomenon, which has been so 



278 Wesley's Designated Successor. [1773- 



frequently mentioned in our newspapers. He has minutely, but in very 
flower}'- language, described the awful appearances left by this extra- 
ordinary convulsion of the earth ; and he fairly states the different 
opinions which were formed in regard to the cause of so wonderful an 
event. Mr. Fletcher tells us that he piously chose to take advantage 
of the seriousness stamped, by this alarming occurrence, on the minds of 
the country people, in order to press upon them a proper sense of the 
first or moral cause of so tremendous a dispensation ; and this he has 
done in a manner as rational as could be well expected from the pecu- 
liarity of the occasion and the known enthusiastic spirit of the preacher." 



Age 43-1 " The Finishing Stroke" 



279 



CHAPTER XIV. 

" THE FINISHING STROKE? "THE CHRISTIAN 
WORLD UNMASKED? "MR. RICHARD HIDES 
THREE LETTERS!' 

1773- 

AFTER this long and awkward interruption, there must 
now be a return to the wearisome Calvinian con- 
troversy. 

Early in the year 1773., Mr. Richard Hill published an 
Svo, pamphlet of 57 pages, with the title, " The Finishing 
Stroke : containing some Strictures on the Rev. Mr. Fletcher's 
Pamphlet, entitled Logica Genevensis, or a Fourth Check to 
Antinomianism." 

" The Finishing Stroke ! " remarked the Monthly Review for March, 
I 773- "No — we are afraid not! We shall certainly have more last 
words from Shropshire. Here is a fresh attack on the Vicar of Madeley. 
Mr. Hill does not seem at all inclined to let Mr. Fletcher remain master 
of the field, for want of an opponent, ' notwithstanding the resolution he 
had formed of being silent.' — Vide advert, prefixed to the 'Finishing 
Stroke.' " 

Mr. Hill's pamphlet is dated January 2, 1773, and 
addressed to Fletcher. He begins by saying : — 

"Last Saturday, and not before, I received your Logica Genevensis, 
or Fourth Check to Antinomianism; and am truly sorry to find that 
neither the spirit of the piece, nor the doctrine it contains, is a jot better 
than what appeared in the former Checks." 

Mr. Richard Hill was angrier than ever. Want of space 
renders it impossible to examine his theology ; and to quote 
his calumnious accusations is unsavoury work ; and yet the 
latter must be done, for the employment of these slanders was, 



28o 



Wesley 9 s Designated Successor. 



[1773- 



at least, one of the reasons why the controversy was con- 
tinued. Perhaps, Fletcher was not averse to fighting. He 
liked an honourable contest, especially if it was likely to 
repress evil, or to promote good. To do this had been his 
chief, almost his only object during the last two years ; but 
now his own reputation was at stake, and he was bound to 
defend himself, as well as to defend the doctrines he had 
expounded and enforced. 

/ " The purest treasure mortal times afford, 
I Is spotless reputation ; that away, 

Men are but gilded loam, or painted clay." 

On the ninth page of his pamphlet, Richard Hill politely 
asks poor Fletcher, " Can you wonder, Sir, that we look 
upon you as a spiritual calumniator, and that we accuse you 
of vile falsehood and gross perversion ? " 

On the next page, Mr. Hill remarks : — 

"I know, Sir, that it was a warm attachment to your friend, which 
occasioned you to run the lengths 3-ou have done. But dear as that 
friend is to you, truth ought to be dearer still ; yet the maxim, which 
yon seem all along to pursue, is, that Mr. Wesley must be vindicated ; 
yea, though all the ministers in the kingdom, yourself not excepted, 
should fall to the ground. But what makes us still more sensibly feel 
the power of your pen is that our tenets are most shamefully (would I 
could say unintentionally) misrepresented, in order to prejudice the 
world against us, and to make them believe we hold sentiments which 
from our inmost souls we most cordially detest ; particularly with regard 
to the doctrines of election and perseverance, which you have made to 
stand upon a pillory as high as Hainan's gallows, dressed up in a 
frightful garb of your own invention, and then pelted them till all your 
mud and dirt was exhausted. 

"Mr. Wesley has nothing to do but hold up his finger in order to 
prevent thousands of his followers from ever looking into anything that 
is written against his own faction, and to make them believe that the 
Four Checks (as they are called) contain the medulla of the Christian 
religion. Be this as it will, the unfair quotations 3-ou have made, and 
the shocking misrepresentations and calumnies you have been guilty of, 
will, for the future, prevent me from looking into any of your books, if 
you should write a thousand volumes. So here the controversy must 
end ; at least it shall end for me." 

"I cannot, however, conclude without again acknowledging that, in the 
sight of men, your life is exemplar}', and your walk outwardly blameless " 
(p. 41). 




Mr. Richard Hill added a " Postscript " of ten pages to his 



Age 43.] 



' ' L ogica Wesleiensis. ' ' 



281 



long letter, the postscript chiefly consisting of extracts from 
one of Fletcher's sermons, preached in Madeley Church, 
eleven years before, and of which Mr. Hill happened tc 
possess a manuscript copy. The text was Rom, xi. 5, 6. 
Mr. Hill says he regards this sermon as "the best confutation " 
of Wesley's " Minutes," and of Fletcher's " Checks ; " and 
that, because he so regarded it, he had actually sent it to 
press ; but, doubting the fairness and uprightness of such a 
proceeding without obtaining the preacher's permission, he 
had " stopped the publication." Mr. Hill, however, now 
published extracts from the sermon, without Fletcher's per- 
mission ; and this induced Fletcher to re-preach his sermon 
with additions and explanations. This was done in Madeley 
Church, on May 23, 1773, and the sermon, thus revised,, 
was published in the First Part of Fletcher's "Equal Check to 
Pharisaism and Antinomianism," in 1774. 

It would be easy to pick out of Mr. Hill's " Finishing 
Stroke" not a few most shameful opprobriums. Fletcher is 
accused of " descending to the poor illiberal arts of forgery 
and defamation, in order to blacken his opponents, and to 
establish his own pernicious principles." "He had used 
high-flown sarcastic declamation, base forgeries, and gross 
misrepresentations." 

Such were some of the acerbities of Richard Hill. He 
was the slanderer ; not Fletcher. The latter was too much 
a gentleman, to say nothing of his being a Christian, to 
indulge in such scurrilous vituperation. The two men had 
been engaged in a theological combat ; Hill had been utterly 
vanquished ; and, instead of meekly acknowledging his defeat, 
he dishonourably abused his victorious opponent. With 
respect to his conversion, he was more indebted to Fletcher 
than to any other man ; but this was now forgotten. The 
Vicar of Madeley, whom he had so greatly loved, had become 
the object of his scorn. 

Immediately after the publication of his "Finishing Stroke," 
Mr. Richard Hill committed to the press another 8vo pam- 
phlet, of 63 pages, entitled, " Logica Wesleiensis; or, The 
Farrago Double Distilled. With an Heroic Poem in Praise 
of Mr. John Wesley." Mr. Hill, in addressing Wesley, says : — ■ 

" I have never seen you above four or five times in my whole life ; 



282 



Wesley's Designated Successor. 



1773- 



once in the pulpit at West Street Chapel; once at a friend's house; 
and once or twice, at my request, you were so kind as to drink a for- 
bidden dish of tea with me, when I lodged in Vine Street, St. James's, 
as I wanted to speak to you concerning a poor man in your connections." 

By his own confession, it is evident that Mr. Hill's personal 
knowledge of Wesley was very slight, and yet, in his <c Logica 
Wesleiensis," he abuses him more ferociously than he had 
abused Fletcher in his "Finishing Stroke." Of the contumely 
hurled at Wesley, nothing will be said here, but two or three 
extracts concerning Fletcher must be introduced : — 

" Mr. Fletcher affirms that all the Protestant Churches, the old Cal- 
vinist ministers, and Puritan divines, are on the side of the ' Minutes.' 
Mr. Hill makes it appear, as clear as the sun, that this is a point-blank 
falsehood as ever was written" (p. 7). 

" Mr. Wesley revised, corrected, and gave his own imprimatur to 
all Mr. Fletcher's Checks, throughout which, Mr. John is the Alpha 
and the Omega" (p. 53). 1 

" Since the foregoing pages were finished in manuscript, I have seen 
Mr. Fletcher's 'Logica Geneve?zsis, or Fourth Check to Antinomian- 
ismS Though I fully intended to have been silent, the many perversions 
and misrepresentations which I have detected under the cover of much 
professed candour, will oblige me once more to enter the lists with my 
able antagonist ; but, despairing of my own skill, I must beg leave to 
call in the Vicar of Madeley, to be my second ; and happily for this 
purpose I have preserved a sermon of his, which was preached by him 
only a few years ago, in his own parish church, from Rom. xi. 5,6. I think 
it is by far the best refutation of the unscriptural doctrine contained in 
the ' Minutes,' and in all the ' Checks,' which I have yet seen. As this 
sermon was publicly delivered before a very numerous congregation, 
and copies of it handed about, by the preacher's own permission ; and 
as he tells us that he is determined, God being his helper, to preach 
the doctrine therein contained, till his tongite cleave to the roof of his 
mouth, — no reasonable person can think that there is the least unfairness 
in my availing myself of so powerful an ally ; and I solemnly declare, 
upon the word of a Christian, that, in the few extracts I may make from 
it, I will not alter the least jot or tittle from the manuscript, and only 
make some marginal notes and observations upon it" (p. 59). 

Mr. Richard Hill might think there was nothing^ unfair 
in publishing another man's manuscript without his per- 
mission ; but men of honour will disagree with him. Even 



1 This was not true, at all events, so far as the " Fourth Check " was 
concerned, See Wesley's Works, vol. x., p. 400 ; 



Age 43.] 



Rev. John Berridge. 



283 



if the manuscript had contained doctrines at variance with 
some propounded in Fletcher's "Checks/' what then ? Eleven 
years had elapsed since the sermon was composed and 
preached ; and surely Fletcher was not to be blamed and 
lashed if, during such a lengthened period, he had modified 
some of his theological opinions. Fletcher had no choice 
left to him but to re-examine his old sermon, and ascertain 
if it contained anything contrary to the doctrines advocated 
in his " Checks." 

Meanwhile, another opponent had entered the battle-field. 
Just at this juncture, honest, and good, though eccentric, 
John Berridge, Vicar of Everton, published his well-known 
book, entitled, " The Christian World Unmasked. Pray 
Come and Peep." 12 mo, 229 pp. The doctrines so quaintly 
taught by Berridge were the doctrines of Richard Hill and 
his Calvinistic friends ; but Berridge was too loving a Chris- 
tian to display Richard Hill's acrimonious spirit. The names 
of Wesley and Fletcher were not once mentioned in the 
whole of his performance ; though, of course, their tenets 
were attacked. No one could find fault with this ; but 
Fletcher felt it his duty to answer his dear old friend at 
Everton. Writing to John Thornton, Esq., on August 1 8, 
1773, Berridge remarked : — 

"In a letter, just received from Mr. Fletcher, he says, 'What you 
have said about sincere obedience has touched the apple of God's eye, 
and is the very core of Antinomianism. 1 You have done your best to 
disparage sincere obedience, and, in a pamphlet ready for the press, I 
have freely exposed what you have written.' Then he cries out, in a 
declamatory style, ' For God's sake, let us only speak against insincere 
and Pharisaical obedience.' Indeed, I thought I had been writing 
against insincere obedience throughout the pamphlet ; and that every 
one, who has eyes, must see it clearly; but I suppose Mr. Fletcher's 
spectacles invert objects, and make people walk with their heads 
downwards." 2 



1 In a letter to the Rev. John Newton, of Olney, dated September 20, 
1773, Berridge said, in his own quaint style, " The Vicar of Madeley 
has sent me word that my prattle, in my pamphlet of ' Sincere Obedience/ 
' is the core of Antinomianism, has exposed St. James, and touched the 
apple of God's eye,' and that he intends to put my head in the pillory, 
and my nose in the barnacles for so doing." ("Works of Berridge; 
and Life by Whittingham," p. 386.) 

2 " Works of Berridge ; and Life by Whittingham," p. 382, 



28 4 



Wesley's Designated Successor. [1773- 



In another letter to the same gentleman, dated thirteen 
days afterwards, Berridge observed : — 

" I thank you for the friendly admonition you gave me respecting 
Mr. Fletcher. It made me look into my heart, and I found some resent- 
ment there. What a lurking devil this pride is ! How soon he takes 
fire, and yet hides his head so demurely in the embers, that we do not 
easily discover him ! I think it is advisable to write to Mr. Fletcher, 
though despairing of success. His pamphlet will certainly be published 
now it is finished. Indeed, I have written to him aforetime more than 
once, and besought him to drop all controversy ; but he seems to regard 
such entreaties as flowing rather from a fear of his pen than a desire of 
peace. His heart is somewhat exalted by his writings, and no wonder. 
He is also endowed with great acuteness, which, though much admired 
by the world, is a great obstacle to a quiet childlike spirit. And he is 
at present eagerly seeking after legal perfection, which naturally pro- 
duceth controversial heat. As Gospel and peace, so law and controversy 
go hand in hand together. How can lawyers live without strife ? In 
such a situation, I know, from my own former sad experience, he will 
take the Scotch thistle for his motto,, JVoli me tangere. But his heart 
seemeth very upright, and his labours are abundant ; and I trust the 
Master will serve him, by-and-by, as he has served me, — put him into a 
pickling tub, and drench him there soundly. When he comes out, 
dripping all over, he will be glad to cry, 'Grace, grace,' and 'a little 
child may lead him.' We learn nothing truly of ourselves, or of grace, 
but in a furnace. 

" Whatever Mr. Fletcher may write against my pamphlet, lam deter- 
mined to make no reply. I dare not trust my own wicked heart in a 
controversy. If my pamphlet is faulty, let it be overthrown ; if sound, 
it will rise above any learned rubbish that is cast upon it. Indeed, what 
signifies my pamphlet, or its author ? While it was publishing, I was 
heartily weary of it ; and have really been sick of it since, and concluded 
it had done no good because it had met with no opposition." 1 

Berridge did write to Fletcher. Hence, in another letter 
to Mr. Thornton, he said : — 

" Everton, September 25, 1773. I have written to Mr. Fletcher, and 
told him what was my intention in speaking against sincere obedience, 
and that my intention was manifest enough from the whole drift of my 
pamphlet. I have also acquainted him that I am an enemy to contro- 
versy, and that if his tract is published, I shall not rise up to fight with 
him, but will be a dead man before he kills me. I further told him I 
was afraid that Mr. Toplady 2 and himself were setting the Christian 

1 " Works of Berridge ; and Life by Whittingham," p. 384. 

2 In the preceding year, Toplady had published his scurrilous pam- 
phlet, with the title, " More Work for Mr. John Wesley ; or, A Vindication 
of the Decrees and Providence of God from the Defamations of a late 
printed paper, entitled, 'The Consequence Proved.'" 



Age 43-] Mr. Richard Hill desiring Peace. 285 



world on fire, and the carnal world in laughter, and wished they could 
both desist from controversy. A letter seemed needful, yet I wrote to 
him without any hope of success, and it appears there is not any. Mr. 
Jones, an expelled Oxonian, has just been with him, and called upon 
me last Saturday. Mr. Fletcher showed him what he had written against 
my pamphlet. It has been revised by Mr. Wesley, and is to be published 
shortly." 1 

Strangely enough, while Berridge was requesting peace 
from Everton, Richard Hill was doing the same from Hawk- 
stone. Berridge's three letters to Mr. Thornton cover the 
space between August 13, 1773, and September 25, 1773; 
and Richard Hill's .three letters to Fletcher, now to be 
introduced, cover the space between July 31, 1773, and 
December 23, 1773. Fletcher answered them privately; 
but his answers have never been published. Mr. Hill's letters, 
too important to be omitted, were as follows : — 

" Hawkstoxe, July 31, 1773. 

" REV. AND DEAR Sir, — I am credibly informed that you wish to 
have done with controversy, and that you are resolved to publish nothing 
more on the subject of the late disputes. Upon the strength of this 
information, as well as to maintain my own desire of promoting peace, 
I shall write to my bookseller in London, to sell no more of any of my 
pamphlets which relate to the ' Minutes ; ' and for whatever may have 
savoured too much of my own spirit, either in my answers to you, or to 
Mr. Wesley, I sincerely crave the forgiveness of you both, and should 
be most heartily glad if no person whatever were to add another word 
to what has been already said on either side. 

"And permit me to hint, that if some restraint could be laid upon 
several of Mr. Wesley's preachers, particularly upon one Perronet (of 
whose superlatively abusive and insolent little piece, 2 1 believe, Mr. Charles 
Wesley testified his abhorrence from the pulpit), I think, under God, it 
might be a salutary means of preventing the poison of vain janglings 
from spreading any further. But, though it is the desire of my soul to 
live in harmony, love, and friendship with you, dear Sir, yet, if God has 
ever shown me anything of my own heart, or of the truths of His Word, 
I must, and still do think that your principles are exceedingly erroneous ; 
and of this, I ever cherish a secret hope that God will convince you, in 
the course of His dealings with your soul. 



1 "Works of Berridge; and Life by Whittingham," p. 387. 

2 Probably Edward Perronet' s " Small Collection in Verse : containing 
a Hymn to the Holy Ghost; an Epigram from the Italian," etc. Printed 
in 1772. i2mo, 16 pp. 



286 Wesley 1 s Designated Successor. [1773. 



"Wishing you abundance of grace, mercy, and peace, I beg leave to 
subscribe myself, Rev. and dear Sir, your sincere friend in the Gospel 
oflmmanuel, " R. Hill. 

" P.S. — I wish, dear Sir, you would make Mr. Wesley acquainted 
with the contents of this letter ; and, if I stop the sale of my books, 
I hope that of the four ' Checks ' will be stopped also." 

This letter of Mr. Richard Hill, at the first reading, seems 
to be peaceable and friendly ; but there is reason to fear 
that the principle that prompted it was cowardice rather 
than courtesy. Mr. Hill had been vanquished more than 
once ; and, naturally enough, he now wished to retire from 
the arena. This, however, his opponents could not permit, 
without sending a shaft after him. In his publications just 
issued, the " Finishing Stroke," and the " Farrago Double- 
Distilled," to say nothing of his previous ones, he had most 
uncharitably accused Fletcher and Wesley not only of igno- 
rances and mistakes, but of sins. He had called Fletcher a 
"calumniator;" he had charged him with practising "for- 
gery and defamation," and " gross misrepresentations," and 
" slander." In the " Farrago Double Distilled," he had ac- 
cused Wesley of using " quirks, quibbles, evasions, and false 
quotations;" and had designated him " a chameleon." His 
" Heroic Poem in Praise of Mr. John Wesley " was a dis- 
graceful production, too coarse and vulgar to be quoted. 
W T as it reasonable to wish or expect that no answer should 
be made to such imputations ? Reputation was as dear in 
the case of John Fletcher and John W T esley as in that of 
Richard Hill ; and, so far as the work of God and the 
interests of the Church of Christ were concerned, vastly more 
important. Besides, when Mr. Hill says he was " credibly 
informed " that Fletcher was " resolved to publish nothing 
more on the subject of the late disputes," he was the victim 
of a delusion, for Fletcher was already preparing his " Fifth 
Check to Antinomianism." 

Fletcher's reply to Mr. Hill's first letter has never been 
published, but its import may be gathered from Mr. Hill's 
second letter to Fletcher, which was as follows : — 

11 August, 1773. 

" Rev. axd Dear Sir, — Attendance at the assizes, and multiplicity 
of business in my office as a Justice of the Peace, have prevented my 



Age 44.] Mr. Richard HHPs Second Letter. 



returning- a more speedy answer to your letter, in which I find you com- 
plain of my having treated you with severity. 

" This obliges me to request you to call to mind the four 'Checks,' and 
then to say what right the author of them has to complain of severity. 
Read the sneering mock proclamation given by the four secretaries of 
state of the predestinarian department ; read the charges brought 
against our celebrated pulpits ; and, if you can still justify what you 
have advanced, you may then with better reason accuse me of severity. 
It pains me to bring these things to your remembrance, as I was deter- 
mined, when I wrote last, to avoid every shadow of any accusation 
against you for what had passed ; and I think you must acknowledge 
that my letter was friendly ; but your introduction of the subject obliges 
me to say what I have. I wish I had any grounds to recall what I have 
said concerning your having laid very great misrepresentations before 
the public, in your quotations from Mr. Wesley's 'Minutes," and in 
the harmony you would make your readers believe there is between the 
Reformers and Puritans, and Mr. Wesley and yourself ; for it is most 
sure that your principles and theirs are as wide as east from west. 

" How far it may be fair to alter the title of your sermon 1 from what it 
stands in the manuscript, must be left to yourself ; I have no objection 
to it as you .propose to print it. As to your explanatory notes and 
additions in brackets, you know, Sir, that by these you may easily make 
the sermon itself speak what language you see proper. Clarke and 
Priestly, by explanatory notes and additions in brackets, can explain 
away the divinity of Christ ; Socinus, His atonement ; and Taylor, the 
corruption of human nature. 

"As you intend to introduce my worthless name into your next pub- 
lication, I must beg to decline the obliging offer you make of my 
perusing your MSS. I am, Rev. and dear Sir, 

" Your sincere friend for Christ's sake, 

" Richard Hill." 

Mr. Hill's last letter is the best of the three. It was 
written soon after his mother's death, and a short time 
before Fletcher's " First Part of the Fifth Check to Anti- 
nomianism " was published. Fletcher offered to allow Mr. 
Hill to read the work in manuscript, but, as Mr. Hill him- 
self states, the offer was declined. 

" Hawkstone, December 23, 1773. 

" Rev. and Dear Sir, — I take the liberty of requesting you to dis- 
tribute among the poor of Madeley the enclosed two guineas, in such 
way and manner as you shall judge fit and proper. 

" I sent your last letter to my brother Rowland, who is now at Totten- 



1 The sermon preached in Madeley Church, on May 23, 1773, and 
afterwards published in the " Fifth Check to Antinomianism." 



288 



Wesley 9 s Designated Successor. 



[1773- 



ham Court chapel, and suppose he received it. However, I waive saying 
anything of the subject of it, as it is my design to have totally done with 
the controversy, which I am firmly persuaded has not done me any 
good. Excuse me if I say, I wish you to examine closely whether it 
has done you any. For my own part, I desire to be humbled before 
God, as well as to ask your forgiveness and Mr. Wesley's (to whom 
I purpose making a visit of peace and love when I go to London), for 
everything that has savoured of wrong or of my own spirit, in what 
I have written relative to his ' Minutes ; ' and, though I believe your 
sentiments to be erroneous, yet I esteem and honour you for all you 
have said against sin ; and for the stand you have made for practical 
religion in this Laodicean, Antinomian age ; and truly concerned should 
I be, if any expressions have dropped from my pen, which might make 
the readers think lightly of sin, under the notion of honouring the 
Saviour from sin. But as God can bear me witness that I had no inten- 
tions of this sort, so I am certain that whosoever makes Christ all his 
salvation, can never at the same time make Him a minister of sin ; and 
I trust the hour will come when, under a deep sense of your own sinful- 
ness and nothingness, you will be glad to lay hold of some of those 
comfortable Gospel truths, which now you look upon as dangerous 
poison. 

" In consequence of my former letter to you, I wrote to my bookseller 
in London, and told Mr. Eddowes in Shrewsbury, to stop the sale of all 
my publications concerning the controversy between us ; and, unless 
God shows me that it is a matter of duty so to do, I shall not revoke 
this order ; it being my earnest desire for the time to come, if it be 
possible, to live peaceably with all men ; and, though I cannot approve 
some of Mr. Wesley's doctrines, because I believe them to be contrary 
to Scripture, and am sure they are contrary to my own experience, yet, as 
I am persuaded that many who are the excellent of the earth are in his 
connexion, I wish to confirm my love towards them on account of the 
grace that is in them ; and, whilst I reject their errors, still to esteem 
their persons ; and never to say or do anything that may hurt that 
common cause for which we all ought to be contending, or which may 
grieve the weakest or meanest of Christ's people. 

"These, dear Sir, are my present sentiments and intentions, and you 
have my free permission to declare them upon the house-top. 

" An afflictive breach, which God has lately been pleased to make in 
our family, by depriving me of a most tender and affectionate mother, 
calls upon me to beg your prayers, that the sudden stroke may be 
sanctified to me and to us all. It loudly bids me remember that I am 
but a stranger and pilgrim here below. May the Lord give me a 
pilgrim's spirit! and may He give us both a right judgment in all 
things ! 

"Permit me to subscribe myself, Rev. and dear Sir, your sincere 
friend and servant in Christ, 

"Richard Hill." 



The Christian spirit of this letter cannot be excelled. 



Age 44-] Mr. Richard Hill in Further Difficulty. 289 



What a contrast to that of the " Finishing Stroke/' pub- 
lished at the beginning of the year ! Mr. Hill gave Fletcher 
full permission to make known the facts that the controversy 
had done him no good ; that he desired to be humbled 
before God, and to ask forgiveness of Fletcher and Wesley 
for everything that had " savoured of wrong," or of his " own 
spirit," in his writings ; that he had stopped the sale of his 
publications ; and that he regarded many of Wesley's people 
as " the excellent of the earth." 

There can be no doubt that Fletcher availed himself of 
Mr. Hill's permission. The facts did honour to Mr. Hill ; 
but, as is often the case, in the course of circulation, the 
facts were perverted. By no fault of Fletcher, it was re- 
ported that Mr. Hill had recanted the doctrines he had so 
stoutly maintained. This was utterly untrue ; and led Mr. 
Hill to send his three letters to the press. 1 No one could 
have found fault with this ; but, unfortunately, Mr. Hill pre- 
fixed a preface to his letters, and appended an appendix. 

In his preface, he remarks, that when Wesley heard from 
Fletcher that he (Mr. Hill) had suppressed the sale of his 
publications, he wrote Mr. Hill " a short and civil letter," in 
which he said, he himself intended to write nothing more on 
the controversy between them, and expressed the hope that 
all, in the future, would be love and peace. This communi- 
cation gratified Mr. Hill, and soon afterwards, when he went 
to London, he had an interview with Wesley at West-street 
chapel, and assured him of his intentions to retire from the 
warfare, and said he wished that nothing more should be 
said on the subject by any one. Wesley took him by the 
hand ; showed a loving, pacific disposition ; and, says Mr, 
Hill, " we parted very good friends." 

Besides this personal narrative, however, the preface re- 
newed the slanderous attacks on Fletcher, accusing him of 
misrepresenting facts, of using " artifices in his manner of 
making quotations;" and "declamation, chicanery, evasion, 
false glosses, and pious frauds, to throw dust into the eyes 



1 The title was, " Three Letters, written by Richard Hill, Esq.. to the 
Rev. J. Fletcher, Vicar of Madeley, in the year 1773 ; setting forth 
Mr. Hill's Reasons for declining any further controversy relative to Mr, 
Wesley's Principles. Shrewsbury." 8vo., 30 pp. 

19 



2 go Wesley } s Designated Successor. [1773- 



of his readers." Not content with this, he made an on- 
slaught on Thomas Olivers, Wesley's trenchant Itinerant, 
who (in 1774) had just published a i2mo book of 168 
pages, entitled " A Scourge to Calumny. In Two Parts. In- 
scribed to Richard Hill, Esq." He sneeringly calls him 
" one Thomas Oliver, alias Olivers, a journeyman cordwainer, 
who had written a pamphlet against him (Mr. Hill), which, 
though in itself black in the grain, was afterwards lacquered 
tip, new soled, and heel-tapped by his master before it was 
exposed for sale." 

"I shall not," continues Mr. Hill, "take the least notice of him, or 
read a line of his composition, 1 anymore than, if I was travelling on the 
road, I would stop to lash, or even order my footman to lash, every 
impertinent little quadruped in a village, that should come out and bark 
at me ; but would willingly let the contemptible animal have the satis- 
faction of thinking he had driven me out of sight." 

This was despicable bombast ; for the Welsh shoemaker, 
as a controversial writer, was quite equal to him who, in 
due time, became a Shropshire baronet. Mr. Hill proceeds 
to say that he cannot read any more of Fletcher's books, 
and, therefore, cannot write any more answers to them ; 
but, because it was now currently reported that he had 
recanted the doctrines which he had defended, he had re- 
voked his orders to stop the sale of his publications, and 
that his " Five Letters to Fletcher," his " Review of Wesley's 
Doctrines," his " Farrago Double Distilled," his " Paris Con- 
versation," and his " Finishing Stroke," might now be bought 
as heretofore. 

The Appendix to Mr. Hill's Three Letters suggests a 
proposed title to Fletcher's works, and sets forth " A Creed 
for Arminians and Perfectionists," as follows : — 

"Article I. 

" I believe that Jesus Christ died for the whole human race^and that 
He had no more love towards those who now are, or hereafter shall be, 
in glory, than for those who now are, or hereafter shall be, lifting up 
their eyes in torments ; and that the one are no more indebted to His 
grace than the other. 



3 If Mr. Hill had not read Thomas Olivers' little book, how is it that 
he can so graphically describe it ? 



Age 44.] Creed for Arminians ajtd Perfectionists. 291 



" Article II. 

"I believe that Divine grace is indiscriminately given to all men; 
and that God, foreseeing that by far the greater part of the world would 
reject this grace, doth, nevertheless, bestow it upon them in order to 
heighten their torments and to increase their damnation in hell. 

" Article III. 

" I believe it depends wholly on the will of the creature whether he 
shall or shall not receive any benefit from Divine grace, 

"Article IV. 

"Though the Scripture tells me that the carnal mind is enmity 
against God, yet I believe there is something in the heart of every 
natural man that can nourish and cherish the grace of God ; and that 
the sole reason why this grace is effectual in some and not in others, is 
entirely owing to themselves and to their own faithfulness, and not to 
the distinguishing love and favour of God. 

"Article V. 

" I believe that God sincerely wishes for the salvation of many who 
never will be saved ; consequently, that it is entirely owing to want of 
ability in God that what He so earnestly willeth is not accomplished. 

"Article VI. 

"I believe that the Redeemer not only shed His precious blood, but 
prayed for the salvation of many souls who are now in hell ; conse- 
quently, that His blood was shed in vain, and His prayer rejected of 
His Father ; and that, therefore, He told a great untruth when He 
said, ' I know that Thou hearest me always.' 

" Article VII. 

" I believe that God, foreseeing some men's nature will improve the 
grace which is given them, and that they will repent, believe, and be 
very good, elects them unto salvation. 

"Article VIII. 

" I believe that the love and favour of Him with whom is no variable- 
ness and shadow of turning, and whose gifts and callings are without 
repentance, may vary, change, and turn every hour and every moment, 
according to the behaviour of the creature. 

"Article IX. 

"I believe that the seed of the Word, by which God's children are 
born again, is a corruptible seed ; and that, so far from enduring for 
ever (as that mistaken apostle Peter rashly affirms), it is frequently 
rooted out of the hearts of those in whom it was sown. 

" Article X. 

" I believe that Christ does not always give unto His sheep eternal 
life ; but that they often perish, and are, by the power of Satan, fre- 
quently plucked out of His hand. 



292 Wesley's Designated Successor. [1773. 



"Article XL 

"Though I have solemnly subscribed to the Thirty-Nine Articles of 
the Church of England, and have affirmed that I believe them from my 
heart, yet I think our Reformers were profoundly ignorant of true 
Christianity, when they declared, in the Ninth Article, that 'the in- 
fection of nature doth remain in them which are regenerate ; ' and, in 
the Fifteenth, that ' all we, the rest (Christ only excepted), although 
baptized and born again in Christ, yet offend in many things ; and if 
we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, a?id the truth is not in 
us' This I totally deny, because it cuts up, root and branch, my 
favourite doctrine of Perfection ; and, therefore, let Peter, Paul, James, 
or John, say what they will ; and let reformers and martyrs join their 
syren song, their eyes were at best but half opened, for want of a little 
Foundery eye-salve ; therefore, I cannot look upon them as adult 
believers, and fathers in Christ." 

The Eleven Articles were subscribed, "J. F." "J. W.," 
and "W. S. ;" which may be taken as the initial letters of the 
names of John Fletcher, John Wesley, and Walter Sellon. 

" What ! more finishing strokes / " remarked the Monthly Review 
of January, 1775, in its notice of Mr. Hill's new pamphlet. "This 
retiring champion, however, like the Parthians of old, is not less for- 
midable in his retreat than in a direct attack. He here lets fly at the 
Arminians and Perfectio?iists one of his sharpest pointed arrows. 
He styles it 'their creed.'' He says he has 'composed it from their 
sentiments ; ' and he adds that he ' can scarcely read it without horror.' 
Yet he thinks himself justified in publishing it, as Mr. Fletcher still 
continued the controversy with so much warmth." 

All this is deeply to be regretted. Mr. Hill had declared 
his determination to abandon this painful warfare, and yet 
here he provokes a continuance of it. It is true that, mean- 
while, Fletcher had published his " Answer to the Finishing 
Stroke " of Mr. Hill ; but Fletcher had done this, not because 
he desired the controversy to be prolonged, but because 
" The Finishing Stroke " contained so many grave attacks 
on Fletcher's moral character, that Fletcher's honour could 
not be maintained without an " Answer " being written. At 
this point the war might have ended ; but, by appending 
the " Creed for Arminians and Perfectionists " to his Three 
Letters, Mr. Hill re-opened the sluice, and " the waters of 
strife " flowed as fiercely as ever. 

From a Calvinian point of view, the " Creed " is drawn up 



Age 44.] Creed for Arminians and Perfectionists. 293 



with great ability ; but Mr. Hill was well aware that it was 
a misrepresentation of the sentiments of Fletcher and Wesley. 
Besides, the thing itself was in bad taste. It must be 
acknowledged that Fletcher had published his " Gospel 
Proclamation : Given at Geneva, and signed by four of his 
Majesty's principal Secretaries of State for the Predestinarian 
Department ! " but there was no need that Mr. Richard Hill 
should copy Fletcher's objectionable example. 

It is now time, however, to turn to Fletcher's masterly 
replies. 




2 9 4 



Wesley s Designated Successor, 



[1774- 



CHAPTER XV. 

"FIFTH CHECK TO ANTINOMIANISM': 
*774- 

IN a characteristic letter addressed to Ambrose Serle, Esq., 
and dated "January ii, 1774," Augustus Toplady ob- 
served : — ■ 

"Mr. Fletcher may fire off as soon as he pleases. The weapons of 
his warfare can never wound the truths of God, any more than a handful 
of feathers can batter down my church tower. I shall, however, be 
glad to see his performance when it appears. Mr. Shirley told me, 
when I was last at Bath, that Fletcher is to succeed Pope Wesley, as 
commander-in-chief of the Societies, if he should survive his holiness. 
No wonder, therefore, that the Cardinal of Madeley is such a zealous 
stickler for the cause. One would think that the Swiss were universally 
fated to fight for pay." 1 

Toplady 's mendacious sneer that Fletcher was fighting 
"for pay" may be scornfully passed over. This letter might 
refer to Fletcher's "Answer to the Rev. Mr. Toplady's Vindi- 
cation of the Decrees," which Fletcher finished in the month 
of October, 1775 ; or it might refer to the expected publi- 
cation of the " Fifth Check to Antinomianism." The " First 
Part" of this was completed at Madeley, September 13, 
1773 ; but was not published until the beginning of 1774. 
The following was its title : " Logica Genevensis continued : 
or the First Part of the Fifth Check to Antinomianism, con- 
taining an Answer to ' The Finishing Stroke* of Richard Hill, 
Esq. In which some remarks upon Mr. Fulsome s Anti- 
nomian Creed, published by the Rev. Mr. Berridge, are 
occasionally introduced. With an Appendix upon the 



" Complete Works of Toplady." 



Age 45.] 



Remaining Differences. 



295 



remaining difference between the Calvinists and the Anti- 
Calvinists, with respect to our Lord's doctrine of Justification 
by words, and St. James's doctrine of Justification by works, 
and not by faith only. London : 1774." i2mo., 48 pp. 
Fletcher's "Answer" to Richard Hill's " Finishing Stroke," 
* and his " Remarks upon Mr. Fulsome 's Antinomian Creed," 
are able, and characteristic of the writer ; but contain no 
biographical facts worth mentioning. Two extracts, how- 
ever, from the " Appendix," upon the remaining differences 
between the Calvinists and the anti-Calvinists, may be useful ; 
inasmuch as, in a condensed form, they exhibit the point to 
which, in Fletcher's opinion, the controversy had brought 
both parties with respect to the principal of Wesley's 
"Minutes " of 1770. Fletcher writes : — 

" On both sides, we agree to maintain, in opposition to Socinians and 
Deists, that the grand, the primary, and properly meritorious cause of 
our justification, from first to last, both in the day of conversion and in 
the day of judgment, is only the precious atonement and the infinite 
merits of our Lord Jesus Christ. We all agree likewise that in the'day 
of conversion faith is the instrumental cause of our justification before 
God. Nay, if I mistake not, we come one step nearer each other, for 
we equally hold that, after conversion, the works of faith are in this 
world, and will be in the day of judgment, the evidencing cause of ouri 
I justification ; that is, the works of faith (under the above-mentioned 
\ primary cause of our salvation, and in subordination to the faith that 
gives them birth), are now, and will be in the great day, the evidence 
that shall instrumentally cause our justification as believers. Thus Mr. 
Hill says {Review, p. 149], ' Neither Mr. Shirley, nor I, nor any Calvinist 
that I ever heard of, denies that, though a sinner \>z justified in the sight 
of God by Christ alone, he is declaratively justified by works, both 
here and at the day oj 7 - judgment? And the Rev. Mr. Madan, in his 
sermon on ' justification by works stated, explained, and reco?iciled 
with justification by faith,'' says [p. 29], ' By Christ only are we meri- 
toriously justified, and by faith only are we instrumentally justified in 
the sight of God ; but by works, and not by faith only, are we declara- 
tively justified before men and angels? From these two quotations, 
which could easily be multiplied to twenty, it is evident that pious 
Calvinists hold the doctrine of a justification by the works of faith ; or, 
as Mr. Madan expresses it, after St. James, by works, and not by faith 
only. 

"It remains now to show wherein we disagree. At first sight, the 
difference seems trifling ; but, upon close examination, it appears that 
the whole antinomian gulf still remains fixed between us. Read the 
preceding quotations, weigh the clauses which I have put in capitals, 
compare them with what the Rev. Mr. Berridge says in his ' Christian 



296 Wesley s Designated Successor. [1774- 



TVorld Unmasked' (p. 26), of 1 an absolute impossibility of being 
jitstified in any manner by our works,' namely, before God ; and you 
will see that though pious Calvinists allow we are justified by works 
before men a?td angels, yet they deny our being ever justified by works 
before God, in whose sight they suppose we are for ever justified by 
Christ alone,'' i.e., only by Christ's good works and sufferings, abso- 
lutely imputed to us from the very first moment in which we make a 
single act of true faith, if not from all eternity. Thus works are entirely 
excluded from having any hand either in our intermediate or final justi- 
fication before God ; and thus they are still represented as totally 
needless to our eternal salvation. Now, in direct opposition to the 
above-mentioned distinction, we anti-Calvinists believe that adult persons 
cannot be saved without being justified by faith as sinners, according 
to the light of their dispensation ; and by works as believers, according 
to the time and opportunities they have of working. We assert that the 
works of faith are not less necessary to our justification before God as 
believers, than faith itself is necessary to our justification before Him 
as sinners. And we maintain that when faith does not produce good 
works (much more when it produces the worst works, such as adultery, 
hypocrisy, treachery, murder, etc.), it dies, and justifies no more ; seeing 
it is a living and not a dead faith that justifies us as sinners ; even as> 
they are living a.nd not dead works that justify us as believers." 

Thus did these good men quarrel. Berridge was a man 
of eminent piety and of great wit, but he could scarcely 
be considered a great theologian ; and it may be fairly doubted 
whether he ever held the doctrines which Fletcher, per- 
haps somewhat hardly, deduces from a few of his unguarded 
words. 

In his next pamphlet, which was published March 1, 1 774, 1 
Fletcher treats poor Berridge with yet greater severity. The 
whole work was devoted to an exposure of the objectionable 
and the weak points in Berridge's " Christian World Un- 
masked." Its title was " Logica Genevensis continued. Or 
the Second Part of the Fifth Check to Antinomianism ; con- 
taining a Defence of ' Jack o' lanthorn,' and ' the Paper-kite,' 
i.e., Sincere Obedience; — of the 'Cobweb,' i.e., The evangelical 
law of liberty ; and of the ' Valiant Sergeant I. F.,' i.e., The 
conditionally of Perseverance, attacked by the Rev. Mr. 
Berridge, M.A., Vicar of Everton, and late Fellow of Clare- 
hall, Cambridge, in his book called ' The Christian World 
Unmasked.' London : 1774." 12 mo., 44 pp. 



1 Lloyd'' 's Eveniiig Post, March 2, 1774. 



Age 45.] Fletcher Answering Berridge. 297 



Berridge was well aware of Fletcher's intention to attack 
his book, for Fletcher himself, seven months before, had told 
him that what he had " said about sincere obedience was the 
very core of Antinomianism," and that he must freely expose 
what he had written. Berridge, in letters to John Thornton, 
Esq., and the Rev. John Newton, complained of this, and said 
Fletcher had misapprehended his meaning. He also wrote 
to Fletcher to the same effect, and told him that, if he 
published his attack, he (Berridge) would not answer it. 
There can be no doubt that Berridge never intended to " dis- 
parage sincere obedience" to the law of God; but his similes, 
allegories, figures, and loose language, might be construed 
by Antinomian readers in such a sense. Fletcher believed 
Berridge to be a sincere, earnest, obedient Christian ; but he 
also believed that Berridge's well-meant book might be turned 
to a bad account by men with whose Antinomian sentiments 
Berridge had no sympathy. In the introduction to his 
pamphlet, Fletcher writes : — 

" Before I mention Mr. Berridge's mistakes, I must do justice to his 
person. It is by no means my design to represent him as a divine, who 
either leads a loose life, or intends to hurt the Redeemer's interest. 
His conduct as a Christian is exemplary ; his labours as a minister are 
great ; and I am persuaded that the wrong touches which he gives to 
the ark of godliness are not only undesigned, but intended to do God 
service. 

" There are so many things commendable in the pious vicar of 
Everton, and so much truth in his ' Christian World Unmasked,' that I 
find it a hardship to expose the unguarded parts of that performance. 
But the cause of this hardship is the ground of my apology. Mr. 
Berridge is a good, an excellent man ; therefore the Antinomian errors 
which go abroad into the world with his letters of recommendation, speak 
in his evangelical strain, and are armed with the poignancy of his wit, 
cannot be too soon pointed out and too carefully guarded against. I 
flatter myself that this consideration will procure me his pardon for 
taking the liberty of dispatching his ' valiant sergeant ' with some doses 
of rational and Scriptural antidote for those who have drunk into the 
pleasing mistakes of his book, and want his piety to hinder them from 
carrying speculative into practical Antinomianism." 

It would weary the reader to follow Fletcher in his minute, 
sometimes pungent, and always irrefutable criticisms on 
Berridge's well-known book. There is often plain speaking, 
but there is no acidity. Berridge is routed, but he is 



298 Wesley 1 s Designated Successor. [1774. 



invariably treated as a Christian and a gentleman. Fletcher's 
" Conclusion " is as follows : — 

"Were I to conclude these strictures upon the dangerous tenets, 
inadvertently advanced and happily contradicted, in 'The Christian 
World Unmasked,' without professing my brotherly love and sincere 
respect for the ingenious and pious author, I should wrong him, myself, 
and the cause which I defend. I only do him justice when I say that 
few, very few, of our elders equal him in devotedness to Christ, zeal, 
diligence, and ministerial success. His indefatigable labours in the 
word and doctrine entitle him to a double share of honour ; and I 
invite all my readers to esteem him highly in love for his Master's and 
his work's sake; entreating them not to undervalue his vital piety on 
account of his Antinomian opinions ; and beseeching them to consider 
that his errors are so much the more excusable as they do not influence 
his moral conduct, and that he refutes them himself far more than his 
favourite scheme of doctrine allows him to do. Add to this that those 
very errors spring, in a great degree, from the idea that he honours 
Christ by receiving, and does God service by propagating them. 

"The desire of catching the attention of his readers has made him 
choose a witty, facetious manner of writing, for which he has a peculiar 
turn ; and the necessity I am under of standing his indirect attack 1 
obliges me to meet him upon his own ground, and to encounter him with 
his own weapons. I beg that what passes for evangelical humour in 
him may not be called indecent levity in me. A sharp pen may be 
guided by a kind heart ; and such, I am persuaded, is that of my much- 
esteemed antagonist, whom I publicly invite to my pulpit ; protesting 
that I should be edified and overjoyed to hear him enforce there the 
guarded substance of his book, which, notwithstanding the vein of 
so1i'firliar)jc;m I have taken the liberty to open, contains many great and 
glorious truths." 

In all his publications, Fletcher had not only Wesley's 
approval, but his high commendation. In three several 
letters, written during the present year, 1774, Wesley thus 
expressed his opinion of Fletcher : — 

"March 1, 1774. — He" [James Perfect], "preaches salvation by 
faith in the same manner that my brother and I have done ; and as Mr. 
Fletcher (one of the finest writers of the age) has beautifully explained 
it. None of us talk of being accepted for our works ; that is the Cal- 
vinist slander. But we all maintain we are not saved without works ; 



1 As previously stated, Fletcher's name was not mentioned in 
Berridge's book, but the book was intended to ridicule and denounce 
the doctrines which Fletcher, in his " Checks" had defended. 



Age 45.] 



Wesley on Fletcher. 



299 



that works are a condition (though not the meritorious cause) of final 
salvation. It is by faith in the righteousness and blood of Christ that 
we are enabled to do all good works ; and it is for the sake of these 
that all who fear God and work righteousness are accepted of Him." 1 

"May 2, 1774. Until Mr." (Richard) "Hill and his associates puzzled 
the cause, it was as plain as plain could be. The Methodists always 
held, and have declared a thousand times, that the death of Christ is 
the meritorious cause of our salvation, that is, of pardon, holiness, and 
glory ; loving, obedient faith is the condition of glory. This Mr. 
Fletcher has so illustrated and confirmed, as, I think, scarcely any one 
has done before since the Apostles." 2 

"December 28, 1774. If we could once bring all our preachers, 
itinerant and local, uniformly and steadily to insist on those two points, 
' Christ dying for us,' and ' Christ reigning in us,' we should shake the 
trembling gates of hell. I think most of them are now exceeding clear 
herein, and the rest come nearer and nearer ; especially since they have 
read Mr. Fletcher's ' Checks,' which have removed many difficulties out 
of the way." 3 

Such was one of the services which Fletcher, " one of the 
finest writers of the age," had rendered to Wesley's preachers 
and people as early as the year 1774. They had been in 
danger of departing from the truth, or, at least, stumbling 
at it: by Fletcher's help, they were confirmed in the Christian 
faith, and henceforth earnestly contended for it. 

As already seen, in 1773 Mr. Richard Hill had extended 
to Fletcher the olive branch of peace ; and now the Countess 
of Huntingdon seems to have done the same. Three years 
before, she had virtually dismissed him from her Calvinistic 
College at Trevecca, because he would not renounce what 
were called the "horrible and abominable" doctrinal "Minutes" 
of Wesley's Conference in 1770. Since then, he had been 
incessantly employed in explaining and defending these 
"Minutes;" and, in every instance, had vanquished his 
opponents. Her ladyship, with her strong-mindedness, seemed 
to perceive this, and wished to have an interview with her 
disbanded president. She was staying at Bath, and through 
James Ireland, Esq., of Bristol, the intimate friend of both, 
her wish appears to have been conveyed to Fletcher ; who, 
in reply, wrote to Mr. Ireland as follows : — 

1 Wesley's Works, vol xii., p. 372. 

\ Ib i d , P- 373- 
Ibid, p. 430. 



300 



Wesley' s Designated Successor, 



[1774. 



" Madeley, February 6, 1774. 
" My Dear Friend, — In the present circumstances, it was a great 
piece of condescension in dear Lady Huntingdon to be willing to see 
me privately : but for her to permit me to wait upon her openly denotes 
such generosity, such courage, and a mind so much superior to the 
narrowness that clogs the charity of most professors, that it would have 
amazed me, if everything that is noble and magnanimous were not to be 
expected from her ladyship. It is well for her that spirits are imprisoned 
in flesh and blood, or I might by this time (and it is but an hour since I 
received your letter) have troubled her ten times with my apparition, to 
wish her joy of being above the dangerous snare of professors — the 
smiles and frowns of the religious world ; and to thank her a thousand 
times for not being ashamed of her old servant, and for cordially forgiving 
him all that is past, upon the score of the Lord's love, and of my honest 
meaning. 

" But though, on reading your letter, my mind has travelled so fast 
to Bath, yet an embargo is laid upon my body — 1 1 must not go yet.' I 
am the more inclined to take the hint, for two reasons. I will tell you 
all my heart about it. The more I see her ladyship's generosity, and 
admire the faithfulness of the friendship that she has for many years 
honoured me with, the more I ought to take care not to bring burdens 
upon her. It might lessen her influence with those she is connected 
with ; and might grieve some of her friends, who possibly would look 
upon her condescension as an affront to them. This is the first reason. 

" The second respects myself. I must follow my light. A necessity 
is laid upon me to clear my conscience with respect to the Antmomzan 
world, and to point out the stumbling-block that keeps many serious 
people from embracing the real doctrines of free grace. I cannot do 
this without advancing some truths, which I know her ladyship receives 
as well as myself, but which, by my manner of unfolding them, will, at 
first sight, appear dreadful touches to the Gospel of the day. I am just 
sending to the press 'A Scriptural Essay upon the Astonishing Reward- 
ableness of the Works of Faith.' Though it consists only of plain 
Scriptures, and plain arguments, without anything personal, I think it 
will raise more dust of prejudice against me than my preceding pub- 
lications. With respect to myself, I do not mind it ; but I am bound 
in love to mind it with respect to her ladyship. My respect for her 
ladyship, therefore, together with the preceding reason, determine me 
to defer paying my respects personally to her, till after the publication 
of my 'Essay,' and 'Scripture Scales ; ' and, if she does not then revoke 
the kind leave she. gives me, I shall most gladly make the best of my 
way to assure her in person, as I do now by this indirect means, that I 
am, and shall for ever be her dutiful servant in what appears to me the 
plain Gospel of our common Lord. 

"With love to yourself, and dutiful love to our noble friend, I am, 
etc., "J. Fletcher." 1 



1 Letters, 1791, p. 221. 



Age 45.] Fletcher Writing, mid Weary. 



301 



Nothing need be said respecting Fletcher's considerate 
kindness in declining, for the present, an interview with the 
Countess of Huntingdon, lest he should become the means 
of bringing upon her undeserved reproach from some of her 
bigoted and narrow-hearted friends. It was like the man, 
and worthy of him. 

In another letter to Mr. Ireland, Fletcher further refers 
to the returning friendliness of the Countess, and to his 
controversial and exhausting labours, of which he was be- 
coming weary : — 

"Madeley, March 27, 1774. 

" My DEAR Sir, — I think I wrote my last two days before I received 
your bounty — a large hogshead of rice and two cheeses. Accept the 
thanks of myself and of my poor flock. I distributed it on Shrove- 
Tuesday, and preached to a numerous congregation on ' Seek ye first 
the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all other things shall 
be added unto you.' We prayed for our benefactor, that God would 
give him a hundredfold in this life, and eternal life, where life eternal 
will be no burden. I saw then, what I have not often seen on such 
occasions, gladness without the appearance of envying or grudging. 

" I get very slowly out of the mire of my controversy, and yet I hope 
to get over it, if God spares my life, in two or three pieces more. Since 
I wrote last, I have added to my 'Equal Check' a piece which I call 
' An Essay on Truth ; or, a Rational Vindication of the Doctrine of 
Salvation by Faith,' which I have taken the liberty to dedicate to Lady 
Huntingdon, to have an opportunity of clearing her ladyship from the 
charge of Antinomianism. I have taken this step in the simplicity of 
my heart, and as due from me, in my circumstances, to the character of 
her ladyship. 

"I have just spirit enough to enjoy my solitude, and to bless God 
that I am out of the hurry of the world — even the spiritual world. I 
tarry gladly in my Jerusalem, till the kingdom of God comes with power. 
Till then, it matters not where I am : only as my chief call is here, here 
I gladly stay, till God fits me for the pulpit or the grave. I still spend 
my mornings in scribbling. Though I grudge so much time in writing, 
yet a man must do something ; and I may as well investigate truth as 
do anything else, except solemn praying and visiting my flock. I shall 
be glad to have done with my present avocation, that I may give myself 
up more to those two things. 

' ' O how life goes ! I walked, now I gallop into eternity. The bowl 
of life goes rapidly down the steep hill of time. Let us be wise : embrace 
we Jesus and the resurrection. Let us trim our lamps, and give ourselves 
afresh to Him that bought us, till we can do it without reserve. Adieu ! 

" J. Fletcher." 1 

1 Letters, 1791, p 223. 



302 Wesley* s Designated Successor. [1774. 



CHAPTER XVI. 

FURTHER PUBLICATIONS IN THE YEAR 
1774- 

IN Lloyd } s Evening Post for March 2, 1774, there appeared 
the following advertisement : — 

"In the Press. An Equal Check to Pharisaism and Antinomianism ; 
and the Scripture Scales to weigh Gospel Truth ; both by the Rev. Mr. 
John Fletcher, Vicar of Madeley, Shropshire." 

" The Scripture Scales" however, were published separately, 
and not until the year was ending. First of all, Fletcher 
issued a 12 mo. volume of 264 pages, entitled, "The First 
Part of an Equal Check to Pharisaism and Antinomianism, 
containing, I. An Historical Essay on the Danger of parting 
Faith and Works. II. Salvation by the Covenant of Grace, 
A Discourse preached in the Parish Church of Madeley, 
April 18, and May 9, 1773. III. A Scriptural Essay on 
the astonishing Rewardableness of Works, according to the 
Covenant of Grace. IV. An Essay on Truth, or, A rational 
Vindication of the Doctrine of Salvation by Faith, with a 
dedicatory Epistle to the Right Hon. the Countess of 
Huntingdon. By the Author of the Checks to Antino- 
mianism. Shrewsbury : Printed by J. Eddowes : and sold 
at the Foundery ; and by J. Buckland, in Paternoster Row, 
London ; by T. Mills in Bath ; and S. Aris in Birmingham. 
* 774*" 

Fletcher's Preface is dated, Madeley, May 21, 1774. 
The following extracts from it convey an idea of the scope 
of his book : — 

"I. The first piece of this Check was designed for a preface to the 
Discourse that follows it ; but as it swelled far beyond my intention, I 



Age 45.] First Part of the "Equal Cheeky 303 



present it to the reader under the name of An Historical Essay, which 
makes way for the tracts that follow. 

"II. With respect to the Discourse, I must mention what engages 
me to publish it. In 1 77 1 , I saw the propositions called the 'Minutes.'' 
Their author invited me to 'review the whole affair.' I did so ; and 
soon found that I had ' leaned too much toward Calvinism,' which, after 
mature consideration, appeared to me exactly to coincide with specu- 
lative Antinomianism ; and the same year I publicly acknowledged my 
error. 1 

" When I had thus openly confessed that I was involved in the guilt 
of many of my brethren, and that I had so leaned towards s-peculative 
as not to have made a proper stand against practical Antinomianism, 
who could have thought that one of my most formidable opponents 2 
would have attempted to screen his mistakes behind some passages of 
a manuscript sermon which I preached twelve years ago, and of which, 
by some means or other, he has got a copy ? 

" I am very far from recanting that old discourse. I still think the 
doctrine it contains excellent, in the main, and very proper to be en- 
forced, though in a more guarded manner, in a congregation of hearers 
violently prejudiced against the first gospel axiom. 3 Therefore, out of 
regard for the grand, leading truth of Christianity, and in compliance 
with Mr. Hill's earnest entreaty ('Finishing Stroke,' p. 45), I send 
my sermon into the world upon the following reasonable conditions : 

1. That I shall be allowed to publish it, as I preached it a year ago in 
my church, namely, with additions in brackets, to make it at once a 
fuller Check to Pharisaism, and a finishing Check to Antinomianism. 

2. That the largest addition shall be in favour of free grace. 3. That 
nobody shall accuse me of forgery, for thus adding my present light 
to that which I had formerly ; and for thus bringing out of my little 
treasure of experience things new and old. 4. That the press shall 
not groan with the charge of- disingemuty , if I throw into Notes some 
unguarded expressions, which I formerly used without scruple, and 
which my more enlightened conscience does not suffer me to use at 



1 In the " Second Check to Antinomianism." 

2 Mr. Richard Hill. 

3 Thus defined by Fletcher in his " Doctrines of Grace and Justice : " 
"Our salvation is of God; or, There is free grace in God; which, 
through Christ, freely places all men in a state of temporary redemption, 
justification, or salvation, according to the various Gospel dispensations, 
and crowns those who are faithful unto death with an eternal re- 
demption, justification, or salvation." 

His definition of the second Gospel axiom is, "Our damnation is of 
ourselves : or, There is a free-will in man ; by which he may, through 
the grace freely imparted to him in the day of temporary salvation, 
work out his own eternal salvation ; or he may, through the natural 
power which angels had to sin in heaven, and our first parents in 
paradise, choose to sin away the day of temporary salvation. And by 
thus working out his damnation, he may provoke just wrath, which is 
the same as despised free grace, to punish him with eternal destruction." 



304 



Wesley' *s Designated Successor. [1774- 



present. 5. That my opponent's call to print my sermon will procure 
me the pardon of the public, for presenting them with a plain, blunt, 
discourse, composed for an audience chiefly made up of colliers and 
rustics. And, lastly, that, as I understand English a little better than 
I did twelve years ago, I shall be permitted to rectify a few French 
idioms, which I find in my old manuscript ; and to connect my thoughts 
a little more like an Englishman, where I can do it without the least 
misrepresentation of the sense. 

"III. With regard to the ' Scriptural Essay ' upon the rewardable- 
ness or evangelical worthiness of works, I shall just observe that it 
attacks the grand mistake of Solifidians countenanced by three or four 
words of my old sermon. I pour a flood of Scriptures upon it ; and, 
after receiving the fire of my objector, I return it in a variety of scriptural 
and rational answers, about the solidity of which the public must 
decide. 

"IV. The 1 Essay on Truth' will, I hope, reconcile judicious 
moralists to the doctrine of salvation by faith, and considerate Soli- 
fidians to the doctrine of salvation by the works of faith ; reason and 
Scripture concurring to show the constant dependence of works upon 
faith ; and the wonderful agreement of the doctrine of present salvation 
by TRUE faith, with the doctrine of eternal salvation by GOOD works. 

" I hope that I do not dissent, in my observations upon faith, either 
from our Church, or approved Gospel ministers. In their highest 
definitions of that grace, they consider it only according to the fulness 
of the Christia7i dispensation ; but my subject has obliged me to 
consider it also according to the dispensations of John the Baptist, 
Moses, and Noah. Believers under these inferior dispensations have 
not always assurance, nor is the assurance they sometimes have so__ 
oright as that of adult Christians, Matt. xi. 11. But, undoubtedly, 
assurance is inseparably connected with the faith of the Christian 
dispensation, which was not felly opened till Christ opened His glorious 
baptism on the Day of Pentecost, and till His spiritual kingdom was 
set up with power in the hearts of His people. Nobody, therefore, can 
truly believe, according to this dispensation, without being immediately 
conscious both of the forgiveness of sins, and of peace and joy in the 
Holy Ghost. This is a most important truth, derided indeed by fallen 
Churchmen, and denied by Laodicean Dissenters ; but, of late years 
gloriously revived by Mr. Wesley and the Ministers connected with 
him." 

From these extracts, the reader may gather the difficult 
and important doctrines discussed by Fletcher in his book of 
pamphlets. In a work like this it is impossible to follow 
him in his careful statements of truth, in the arguments by 
which he proves them, and in his answers to objections 
raised against them ; but a few remarks respecting some of 
these publications must be attempted. 



Age 45.] 



A Doleful Picture, 



305 



In a prelude to his sermon first delivered in 1762, and now 
amended, Fletcher gives a doleful picture of what he himself 
had witnessed during the interval. He says : — 

"The substance of the following Discourse was committed to paper 
many years ago, to convince the Pharisees and papists of my parish 
that there is no salvation by the faithless works of the law, but by a 
living faith in Jesus Christ. With shame I confess that I did not then 
see the need of guarding the doctrine of faith against the despisers of 
works. I was chiefly bent upon pulling up the tares of Pharisaism : 
those of Antinomianism were not yet sprung up in the field, which I 
began to cultivate : or my want of experience hindered me from dis- 
cerning them. But since, what a crop of them have I perceived and 
bewailed ! 

"Alas! they have, in a great degree, ruined the success of my ( 
ministry. I have seen numbers of lazy seekers, enjoying the dull \ 
pleasure of sloth on the couch of wilful unbelief, under pretence that j 
God was to do all in them without them. I have seen some lie flat / 
in the mire of sin, absurdly boasting that they could not fall ; and 
others make the means of grace means of idle gossiping or sly court- \ 
ship. I have seen some turn their religious profession into a way of \ 
gratifying covetousness or indolence ; and others, their skill in church • 
music, their knowledge, and their zeal, into various nets to catch 
esteem, admiration, and praise. Some I have seen making yesterday' s \ 
faith a reason to laugh at the cross to-day ; and others drawing, from 
their misapprehensions of the atonement, arguments to be less im- 
portunate in secret prayer, and more conformable to this evil world 
than once they were. Nay, I have seen some professing believers 
backward to do those works of mercy, which I have sometimes found 
persons, who made no profession of godliness, quite ready to perform. 
And — oh ! tell it in Sion, that watchfulness may not be neglected 
by believers, that tearfulness may seize upon backsliders, and that 
trembling may break the bones of hypocrites and apostates — I have 
seen those who had equally shined by their gifts and graces strike the 
moral world with horror by the grossest Antinomianism, and disgrace 
the doctrine of salvation through faith by the deepest plunges into 
scandalous sins." 

As already stated, Fletcher's " Essay on Truth ; or, 
Rational Vindication of the Doctrine of Salvation by Faith," 
was dedicated to his quondam friend and patroness, the 
Countess of Huntingdon, who again desired his friendship, 
his counsel, and his prayers. In his " Dedicatory Epistle " 
he says :— ^ 

"My Lady, — Because I think it my duty to defend the works of 
faith against the triumphant errors of the Solifidians, some of your 

20 



306 



Wesley s Designated Successor. 



[1774- 



ladyship's friends conclude that I am an enemy to the doctrine of 
salvation by faith, and their conclusion amounts to such exclamations 
as these : ' How could a lady, so zealous for God's glory and the Re- 
deemer's grace, commit the superintendency of a seminary of pious 
learning to a man that opposes the funda?nental doctrine of Protes- 
tantism ! How could she put her sheep under the care of such a wolf 
in sheep's clothing!' This conclusion, my lady, has grieved me for 
your sake ; and, to remove the blot that it indirectly fixes upon you, 
as well as to balance my ' Scriptural Essay on the Rewardableness ' of 
the works of faith, I publish, and humbly dedicate to your ladyship, this 
last piece of my 'Equal Check to Pharisaism and Antinomianism. 
May the kindness which enabled you to bear for years with the coarse- 
ness of my ministrations incline you favourably to receive this little 
token of my unfeigned attachment to Protestantism, and of my lasting 
respect for your ladyship ! 

" Your aversion to all that looks like controversy can never make you 
think that an Eqical Check to the two grand delusions, which have 
crept into the Church, is needless in our days. I flatter myself, there- 
fore, that though you may blame my performance, you will approve of 
my design. And indeed what true Christian can be absolutely neuter 
in this controversy ? If God has a controversy with all Pharisees and 
Antinomians, have not all God's children a controversy with Phari- 
saism and Anti7iomianism ? Have you not, for one, my lady ? Do 
you not check in private what I attempt to check in public ? Does not 
the religious world know that you abhor, attack, and pursue Pharisaism 
in its most artful disguises ? And have I not frequently heard you 
express, in the strongest terms, your detestation of Antinomianism, 
and lament the number of sleeping professors, whom that Delilah robs 
of their strength? Nor would you, I am persuaded, my lady, have 
countenanced the opposition which was made against the 'Minutes,' 
if your commendable, though (as it appears to me) at that time, too 
precipitate zeal against Pharisaism had not prevented your seeing that 
they contain the Scripture truths, which are fittest to stop the rapid 
progress of Antinomianism. 

" However, if you still think, my lady, that I mistake with respect to 
the importance of those propositions, you know I am not mistaken when 
I declare, before the world, that a powerful, practical, actually saving 
faith is the only faith I ever heard your ladyship recommend, as worthy 
to be contended for. And so long as you plead only for such a faith, 
so long as you abhor the winter-faith that saves the Solifidians, in their 
own conceit, while they commit adultery, murder, and incest, if they 
choose to carry Antinomianism to such a dreadful length ; so long as 
you are afraid to maintain, either directly or indirectly, that the evidence 
and comfort of justifying faith may be suspended by sin, but that the 
righteousness of faith, and the jicstification which it instrumentally 
procures, can never be lost, no, not by the most enormous and compli- 
cated crimes, — whatever diversity there may be between your ladyship's 
sentiments and mine, it can never be fundamental. I preach salvation 



Age 45.] 



Saving Faith. 



307 



by a faith that actually works by obedient love, and your ladyship 
witnesses salvation by an actually operative faith; nor can I, to this 
day, see any material difference between those phrases in the present 
controversy. I remain, with my former respect and devotedness, my 
lady, your ladyship's most obliged and obedient servant in the Gospel, 

"J. Fletcher. 

"Madeley, March 12, 1774." 

Fletcher's " Essay on Truth" is one of his ablest and 
most important works. It is full of his own peculiar genius, 
and — what cannot be said concerning all his writings — it 
is very readable. The following brief extracts from it may 
be acceptable and useful : — 

Saving faith. "What is saving faith? 1 I dare not say that it is 
'believing heartily' my sins are forgiven me for Christ's sake; for, 
if I live in sin, that belief is a destructive conceit, and not saving faith. 
Neither dare I say, that ' saving faith is only a sure trust and con- 
fidence that Christ loved me, and gave Himself for me ; ' 2 for, if I did, 
I should almost damn all mankind for four thousand years. Such de- 
finitions of saving faith are, I fear, too narrow to be just, and too 
tmguarded to keep out Solifidianism. 3 To avoid such mistakes; to 
contradict no Scriptures ; to put no black mark of damnation upon any 
man, that in any nation fears God and works of righteousness ; to leave 
no room for Solifidianism, and to present the reader with a definition ot 
faith adequate to the everlasting Gospel, I would choose to say, that 
justifying or saving faith is believing the saving truth with the heart 
unto internal, and (as we have opportunity) unto external righteous- 
ness, according to our light and dispensation. To St. Paul's words, 
Xom. x. 10, I add the epithets internal and external, in order to 
exclude, according to 1 John iii. 7, 8, the filthy imputation, under which 
fallen believers may, if we credit the Antinomians, commit internal and 
external adultery, mental and bodily murder, without the least reason, 
able fear of endangering their faith, their interest in God's favour, and 
their inamissable title to a throne of glory." 

1 As usual, these extracts are made from the original edition, and 
the italics are Fletcher's own. 

2 In a foot-note, Fletcher remarks, "When the Church of England 
and Mr. Wesley give us particular definitions of faith, it is plain that 
they consider it according to the Christian dispensation ; the privileges 
of which must be principally insisted upon among Christians." 

3 Solifidianism, now a favourite word with Fletcher, is thus defined 
by him, in his " Fifth Check to Antinomianism : " — " Solifidianism is the 
doctrine of Solifidians ; and the Solifidians are men who, because sin- 
ners are justified sola fide, 1 by sole faith,' in the day of conversion, 
infer, as Mr. Berridge, that 'believing is the total term of all salvation,' 
and conclude, as Mr. Hill, that the doctrine of final justification by the 
works of faith in the great day is ' full of rottenness and deadly poison,' 
It is a softer word for Antinomianism." 



308 



Wesley's Designated Successor. [1774. 



Faith the gift of God, and the act of man. 11 How is faith the gift \ 
of God ? Some persons think that faith is as much out of our power as I 
the lightning that shoots from a distant cloud ; they suppose that God I 
drives sinners to the fountain of Christ's blood, as irresistibly as the/ 
infernal legion drove the herd of swine into the sea of Galilee." 

After amply refuting this " absurd " idea, Fletcher pro- 
ceeds : — 

"Having thus exposed the erroneous sense in which some people ^ 
suppose that faith is the gift of God, I beg leave to mention in what \ 
sense it appears to me to be so. Believing is the gift of the God of 
Grace, as breathing, moving, and eating are the gifts of the God of 
Nature. He gives me lungs and air, that I may breathe ; He gives me 
life and muscles, that I may move ; He bestows upon me food and a 
mouth, that I may eat ; but He neither breathes, moves, nor eats for me. 
Nay, when I think proper, I can accelerate my breathing, motion, and 
eating : and, if I please, I may fast, lie down, or hang myself, and, 
by that means, put an end to my eating, moving, and breathing. 
Faith is the gift of God to believers, as sight is to you. The parent of 
good freely gives you the light of the sun, and organs proper to receive 
it. Everything around you bids you use your eyes and see ; neverthe- 
less, you may not only drop your curtains, but close your eyes also. 
This is exactly the case with regard to faith. Free grace removes, in 
part, the total blindness which Adam's fall brought upon us ; free grace 
gently sends us some beams of truth, which is the light of the sun of 
righteousness ; it disposes the eye of our understanding to see those 
beams ; it excites us, in various ways, to welcome them '; it blesses us 
with many, perhaps with all the means of faith, such as opportunities 
to hear, read, enquire, and power to consider, assent, consent, resolve, 
and re-resolve to believe the truth. But, after all, believing is as much \ 
our own act as seeing. We may in general do, suspend, or omit the \ 
/ act of faith. Nay, we may do by the eye of our faith, what some report J 
I Democritus did by his bodily eyes. Being tired of seeing the follies of 
\nankind, to rid himself of that disagreeable sight, he put his eyes out. 
We may be so averse from the light, which e7ilightens every man that 
comes into the world ; we may so dread it because our works are evil, 
as to exemplify, like the Pharisees, such awful declarations as these : 
Their eyes have they closed, lest they should see : wherefore God gave 
them up to a reprobate mind, and, they were blinded." 

It need not be added, that Fletcher abundantly sustains 
these figurative arguments by scriptural quotations. 

Two extracts more. In his description of " saving faith" 
Fletcher refuses to put the " black mark of damnation upon 
any man, that in any nation fears God and works righteous- 
ness." In his "Appendix to Prevent Objections," he explains 
his meaning, as follows : — 



Age 45.] 



The Athanasian Creed. 



309 



. i "I make no more difference between the faith of a righteous heathen, » 
( and the faith of a father in Christ, than I do between daybreak and 
I meridian light: — That the light of a sincere Jew is as much one with 
/ the light of a sincere Christian, as the light of the sun in a cold, cloudy 
\ day in March is one with the light of the sun in a fine day in May : — 
And that the difference between the saving faith peculiar to the sincere 
i disciples of Noah, Moses, John the Baptist, and Jesus Christ, consists 
i in a variety of degrees, and not in a diversity of species ; saving faith, 
under all the dispensations, agreeing in the following essentials : 1 . It 
is begotten by the revelation of some saving truth presented by free 
: grace, impressed by the Spirit, and received by the believer's prevented 
; free agency. 2. It has the same original cause in all, that is, the mercy 
\ of God in Jesus Christ. 3. It actually saves all, though in various 
i degrees. 4. It sets all upon working righteousness ; some bearing 
\ fruit thirty, some sixty, and some a hundredfold. And 5. Through 
1 Christ, it will bring all that do not make shipwreck of it to one or 
\ another of the * 7nany mansions,' which our Lord is gone to prepare in 
- heaven for His believing, obedient people. 

" And here honesty obliges me to lay before the public an objection, 
which I had for some time against the 'appendages of the Athanasian 
Creed. I admire the scriptural manner in which it sets forth the Divine 
Unity in Trinity, and the Divine Trinity in Unity ; but I can no longer 
use its damnatory clauses. It abruptly takes us to the very top of the 
Christian dispensation, considered in a doctrinal light. This dispen- 
sation it calls the Catholic faith ; and, without mentioning the faith of 
the inferior dispensations, as our other Creeds do, it makes us declare, 
that ' except everyone keep that faith'' (the faith of the highest dispen* 
sation) ' whole and undefiled, he cannot be saved ; without dozzbt, he 
shall perish everlastingly J 1 This dreadful denunciation is true with 
regard to proud, ungodly infidels, who, in the midst of all the means of 
Christian faith, obstinately, maliciously, and finally set their hearts 
against the doctrine of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost ; equally despising 
the Son's atonement, and the Spirit's inspiration. But I will no more 
invade Christ's tribunal, and pronounce that the fearful punishment of 
damnation shall 'without doubf be inflicted upon 'every' Unitarian, 
Arian, Jew, Turk, and heathen, tliat fears God and works righteous- 
ness , though he does not hold the faith of the Athanasian Creed whole. 
For, if you except the last Article, thousands, yea, millions, are never 
called to hold it at all; and therefore shall never perish for not holding 
it whole. At all hazards, then, I hope I shall never use again those 
damnatory clauses, without taking the liberty of guarding them agree- 
ably to the doctrine of the dispensations. And if Zelotes presses me 
with my subscriptions, I reply beforehand, that the same Church, who 
required me to subscribe to St. Athanasius's Creed, enjoins me also to 
i believe this clause of St. Peter's Creed, 'In every nation, he that feareth 
1 God and worketh righteousness is accepted of Him.' And, if those 
two creeds are irreconcilable, I think it more reasonable that Athanasius 
should bow to Peter, warmed by the Spirit of love, than that Peter should 
I bow to Athanasius, heated by controversial opposition." 



Wesley's Designated Successor. U774- 



Some will object to Fletcher's teaching. Be it so : the 
writer's business is neither to defend nor to condemn ; but 
simply to show, as far as possible, what Fletcher's opinions 
were. John Wesley approved them. " Mr. Fletcher," says 
he, in a letter dated January 17, 1775, " has given us a 
wonderful view of the different dispensations. I believe that 
difficult subject was never placed in so clear a light before. 
It seems God has raised him up for this very thing — 

"'To vindicate eternal Providence, 

And justify the ways of God to man.' " 1 

Fletcher himself, evidently, felt great interest in his "Essay 
on Truth." In a letter, dated March 20, 1 774, and addressed 
to the Rev. Joseph Benson, he observed : — 

"I do not repent having- engaged in the present controversy, for, 
though I think my little publications cannot reclaim those who are given 
up to believe the lie of the day; yet, they may here and there stop one 
from swallowing it at all, or from swallowing it so deeply as otherwise 
he might have done. In preaching, I do not meddle with the points 
discussed, unless my text leads me to it, and then I think them important 
enough not to be ashamed of them before my people. 

" I am just finishing an ' Essay on Truth,' which I dedicate to Lady 
Huntingdon, wherein you will see my latest views of that important 
subject. My apprehensions of things have not changed since I saw 
you last ; save that in one thing I have seen my error. An over-eager 
attention to the doctrine of the Spirit has made me, in some degree, 
overlook the medium by which the Spirit works — I mean the Word of 
Truth, which is the word by which the heavenly fire warms us. I rather 
expected lightning, than a steady fire by means of fuel. I mention my 
error to you lest you should be involved therein. 

' ' My controversy weighs upon my hands ; but I must go through with 
it; which I hope will be done in two or three pieces more: one of which, 
' Scripture Scales to Weigh the Gold of Gospel Truth,' may be more 
useful than the Checks, as being more literally scriptural. 

" I have exchanged a couple of friendly letters with Lady Huntingdon, 
who gives me leave to see her publicly ; but I think it best to postpone 
that honour till I have cleared my mind." 2 

Charles Wesley read and criticized the " Essay on Truth," 
upon which Fletcher wrote him as follows : — 

" I am glad you did not altogether disapprove my 'Essay on Truth.' 
The letter, I grant, profiteth little, until the Spirit animate it. I had, 



1 Wesley's Works, vol. xiii., p. 52. 

2 Benson's " Life of Fletcher." 



Age 45.] Letter to Charles Wesley. 



311 



some weeks ago, one of those touches which realize, or rather spiritualize 
the letter ; and it convinced me more than ever that what I say in that 
tract, of the Spirit and of faith, is truth. I am also persuaded that 
the faith and Spirit, which belong to perfect Christianity, are at a 
very low ebb, even among believers. When the Son of Man cometh to 
set up His kingdom, shall He find Christian faith upon the earth ? 
Yes ; but, I fear, as little as He found of Jewish faith, when He came 
in the flesh. I believe you cannot rest with the easy Antinomian, or 
the busy Pharisee. You and I have nothing to do but to die to all that 
is of a sinful nature, and to pray for the power of an endless life. God 
make us faithful to our convictions, and keep us from the snares of 
outward things. You are in danger from music, children, poetry ; and 
I from speculation, controversy, sloth, etc. Let us watch against the 
deceitfulness of self and sin in all their appearances. 

" What power of the Spirit do you find among the believers in London ? 
What openings of the kingdom ? Is the well springing up in many hearts ? 
Are many souls dissatisfied, and looking for the kingdom of God in 
power ? Watchman ! what of the night ? What of the day ? What 
of the dawn ? 

" I feel the force of what you say about the danger of so encouraging 
the inferior dispensations, as to make people rest short of the faith which 
belongs to perfect Christianity. I have tried to obviate it in some parts 
of the ' Equal Check' and hope to do it more effectually in my reply 
to Mr. Hill's Creed for Perfectionists. Probably, I shall get nothing 
by my polemic labours, but loss of friends, and charges of ' novel 
chimeras' on both sides. I expect a letter from you on the subject. 
Write with openness, and do not fear to discourage me by speaking 
your disapprobation of what you dislike. My aim is to be found at the 
feet of all, bearing and forbearing until truth and love bring better days. 

" I am, rev. and dear Sir, your most affectionate brother and son in 
the Gospel, 

" J. Fletcher." 1 



1 Letters, 1791, p. 224. 



312 Wesley's Designated Successor. [1775- 



CHAPTER XVII. 



PUBLICATIONS IN THE YEAR 



o 



1775 = 

N November 12, 1774, Fletcher wrote :- 



" The author of the 6 Checks 1 has promised to his readers an 
answer to the Rev. Mr. Toplady's piece, entitled, 1 More Work for 
Mr. Wesley.' 1 His reason for postponing the finishing of that ^art 
of his ' Logica Geneve7isis 1 was the importance of the ' Equal Check,' 
which closes the controversy with Mr. Hill. He saw life so uncertain, 
that, of two things which he was obliged to do, he thought it his duty 
to set about that which appeared to him the more useful. He considered 
also that it was proper to have quite done with Mr. Hill, before he faced 
so able a writer as Mr. Toplady. And he hoped, that, to lay before the 
judicious a complete system of truth, which, like the sun, recommends 
itself by its own lustre, was perhaps the best method to prove that error, 
which shines only as a meteor, is nothing but a mock-sun. However, 
he fully designs to perform his engagement in a short time, if his life is 
spared." 

This was prefixed to the first edition of the following 
work, which, at that time, was in the press : " Zelotes and 
Honestus 2 Reconciled ; or, an Equal Check to Pharisaism 
and Antinomianism Continued : Being the First Part of the 
Scripture Scales to weigh the Gold of Gospel Truth,— to 
balance a multitude of opposite Scriptures, — to prove the 
Gospel-Marriage of Free-Grace and Free-will, — and to restore 
primitive harmony to the Gospel of the day. With a Preface, 
containing some Strictures upon the Three Letters of Richard 
Hill, Esq. ; which have been lately published." 



1 This was published in 1772, and will be noticed shortly. 

2 "Zelotes," says Fletcher, "represents any zealous Solifidian, who 
looks upon the doctrine of free-will as heretical : Honestus, any zealous 
moralist, who looks upon the doctrine of free grace as enthusiastical." 



Age 4 6.] Mr. Richard Hilt's " Three Letters." 3x3 



This was Fletcher's largest work. It was published in 
two parts, but it was continuously paged, the whole making 
a 1 2 mo. vol. of 444 pages. 

Mr. Hill's "Three Letters" were published in 1773, just 
after the publication of his " Finishing Stroke." The letters 
have been given in a previous chapter. Fletcher had answered 
them privately ; and now, in a preface to his present work, 
he replied publicly. After stating that Mr. Hill's pamphlet 
" had been hawked about the parish of Madeley " by the 
newsman, he proceeds to say : — 

" Mr. Hill quits the field; but it is like a brave Parthian. He not 
only shoots his own arrows as he retires, but borrows those also of two 
persons, whom he calls ' a very eminent minister in the Church of 
England ' and ' a lay gentleman of great lear7ting and abilities.'' As 
I see neither argument nor Scripture in the performances of those two 
new auxiliaries, I shall take no notice of their ingrafted productions. 

" With respect to Mr. Hill's arguments, they are the same which he 
advanced in his ' Finishing Stroke ; ' nor need we wonder at his not 
scrupling to produce them over again, just as if they had been over- 
looked by his opponent, for in the first page of his book he says, ' I have 
not read a single page which treats on the subject since I wrote my 
Finishing Stroke.' 

"As Mr. Hill's arguments are the same, so are also his personal 
charges. After passing some compliments upon me as an ' able defender 
of Mr. Wesley's principles,' he continues to represent me as 'prostitut- 
ing noble endowments to the advancing of a party: He affirms, 
without shadow of proof, that he has ' detected many misrepresenta- 
tions of facts throughout' my 'publications: He accuses me of 
using ' unbecoming artifices, much declamation, chicanery, and 
evasion;' and says, 1 upon these accounts I really cannot, with any 
degree of satisfaction, read the works of one who, I am in continual 
suspicion, is endeavouring to mislead me by false glosses and pious 
frauds. ' 

" I cannot but still love and honour Mr. Hill on many, very many, 
accounts. Though his warm attachment to what/z<? calls ' the doctrines 
of grace,' and what we call 'the doctrines of limited grace and free 
wrath,' robs him from time to time of part of the moderation, patience, 
and meekness of wisdom which adorn the complete Christian character, 
I cannot but consider him as a very valuable person. I do not doubt 
but when the paroxysm of his Calvinistic zeal shall be over, he will be 
as great an ornament to the Church of England in the capacity of a 
gentleman, as he is to civil society in the capacity of a magistrate. 
And justice, as well as love, obliges me to say that in the mean time 
he is, in several respects, a pattern for all gentlemen of fortune ; few 
equalling him in devoting a large fortune to the relief of the poor, and 



3H 



Wesley* s Designated Successor. [177$. 



their leisure hours to the support of what they esteem the truth. Happy 
would it be for him, and for the peace of the Church, if to all his good 
qualities he always added the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit ; 
and if he so far suspected his orthodoxy as to condescend to weigh him- 
self in the ' Scripture Scales. ' ' ' 

Fletcher's preface to his " Scripture Scales " is " humbly 
addressed to the true Protestants in Great Britain and 
Ireland." 

"The Reformers," says he, "protested three things in general: — 
i. That right reason has an important place in matters of faith. 2. 
That all matters of faith may and must be decided by Scripture, under- 
stood reasonably and consistently with the context. 3. That antiquity 
and fathers, traditions and councils, canons and the Church, lose their 
authority when they depart from sober reason and plain Scripture. These 
three general protests are the very ground of our religion when it is 
contradistinguished from Popery. They who stand to them deserve, in 
my humble opinion, the title of true Protestants. 

" If the preceding account is just, true Protestants are all caitdid ; 
Christian candour being nothing but a readiness to hear right reason 
and plain Scripture. Of all the tempers which true Protestants abhor, 
none seems to them more detestable than that of those gnostics, those 
pretenders to superior illumination, who, under the common pretence of 
orthodoxy or infallibility, shut their eyes against the light, think plain 
Scripture beneath their notice, enter their protest against reason, and 
steel their breasts against conviction. Alas ! how many professors 
there are who, like St. Stephen's opponents, judges, and executioners, 
are neither able to resist nor willing to admit the truth ; who make their 
defence by stopping their ears, and crying out, 1 The temple of the Lord , 
the temple of the Lord are we / ' who thrust the supposed heretic out of 
their sanhedrim ; who, from the press, the pulpit, or the doctor's chair, 
send volleys of hard insinuations or soft assertions, in hope that they will 
pass for solid arguments ; and who, when they have no more stones or 
snowballs to throw at the supposed Philistine, prudently avoid drawing 
' the sword of the Spirit,'' retire behind the walls of their fancied ortho- 
doxy, raise a rampart of slanderous contempt against the truth that 
besieges them, and obstinately refuse either candidly to give up, or 
manfully contend for, the unscriptural tenets which they will impose upon 
others as pure Gospel. 

" Whether some of my opponents, good men as they are, have not a 
little inclined to the error of those sons of prejudice, I leave the candid 
reader to decide. They have neither answered nor yielded to the argu- 
ments of my 'Checks.' They are shut up in their own city. Strong 
and high are thy walls, O mystical Jericho ! Thy battlements reach 
into the clouds, but truth, the spiritual ark of God, is stronger, and 
shall prevail. The bearing of it patiently around thy ramparts, and the 
blowing of rams' horns in the name of the Lord, will yet shake the very 



Age 46.] 



" Scripture Scales." 



315 



foundations of thy towers. Oh that I had the honour of successfully- 
mixing my feeble voice with the blasts of the champions who encompass 
the devoted city ! Oh that the irresistible shout, Reason and Scripture 
— Christ and the Truth — were universal ! If this were the case, how 
soon would Jericho and Babylon — Antinomianism and Pharisaism — fall 
tog-ether. 

"These two anti- Christian fortresses are equally attacked in the t 
/following pages. 

" The controversy is one of the most important which was ever set on 
foot. The GRAND inquiry, ' What shall I do to be saved ? ' is entirely 
suspended on this GREATER question, ' Have I anything TO DO to be 
eternally saved? ' A question this which admits of three answers : — 
1. That of the mere Solifidian, who says, If we are elect, we have 
nothing to do in order to eternal salvation, unless it be to believe that 
Christ has done all for us, and then to sing finished salvation ; and if 
we are not elect, whether we do nothing, little, or much, eternal ruin is 
our inevitable portion. 2. That of the mere moralist, who is as great 
a stranger to the doctrine of free grace as to that of free wrath ; and 
tells you that there is no free, initial salvation for us, and that we must 
work ourselves into a state of initial salvation by dint of care, diligence, 
and faithfulness. And 3. That of their reconciler, whom I consider as 
a rational Bible Christian, and who asserts (1) that Christ has done the 
part of a Sacrificing Priest and teaching Prophet upon earth, and does 
still that of an Interceding and Royal Priest in heaven, whence He 
sends His Holy Spirit to act as an enlightener, sanctifier, comforter, 
and helper in our hearts ; (2) that the free gift of initial salvation, and 
of one or more talents of saving grace, ' is come upon all ' through the 
God-man Christ, who ' is the Saviour of all men, especially of them 
that believe ; ' and (3) that our free will, assisted by that saving grace 
imparted to us in the free gift, is enabled to work with God in a sub- 
ordinate manner, so that we may freely {without necessity) do the part 
of penitent, obedient, and persevering believers, according to the 
Gospel dispensation we are under. 

"This is the plan of this work, in which I equally fight for faith and 
works, for gratuitous mercy and impartial justice ; reconciling all along 
Christ our Saviour with Christ our fudge, heated Augustin with heated 
Pelagius, free grace with free will, Divine goodness with human obedi- 
ence, the faithfulness of God's promises with the veracity of His threat - 
enings, first with second causes, the original merits of Christ with the 
derived worthiness of His members, and God's foreknowledge with our 
free agency. 

"The plan, I think, is generous; standing at the utmost distance 
from the extremes of bigots. It is deep and extensive ; taking in the 
most interesting subjects, such as the origin of evil, liberty, and neces- 
sity, the law of Moses and the Gospel of Christ, general and particular 
redemption, the apostacy and perseverance of the saints, and the 
election and reprobation maintained by St. Paul. I entirely rest the 
cause upon Protestant ground ; that is, upon Reason and Scripture. 



3i6 



Wesley's Designated Successor. 



[1775- 



Nevertheless, to show our antagonists that we are not afraid to meet 
them upon any ground, I prove, by sufficient testimonies from the 
fathers and the Reformers, that the most eminent divines in the primi- 
tive Church and our own, have passed the straits which I point out ; 
especially when they weighed the heavy anchor of prejudice, had a 
good gale of Divine wisdom, and steered by the Christian mariner's 
compass, ' the Word of God,' more than by the false lights hung out 
by party men." 

It is hoped that these quotations from the preface of 
Fletcher's book will induce the reader to peruse and study 
the book itself. To analyse it here is impracticable ; and if 
one extract were given, hundreds ought to follow. In this 
frothy age, the book to many will seem dry and tedious ; 
but to a man sincerely and earnestly in search of sacred 
truth it will prove a mine full of invaluable treasures. 

At the end of the first edition, the following was printed : — - 

" Advertisement. 

" The key to the controversy, which is designed to be ended by the 
' Scripture Scales,' proving too long for this place, the publication of 
it is postponed. It may one day open the way for A n Essay on the 
XVIIth Article, under the following title: 'The Doctrines of Grace 
Reconciled to the Doctrines of Justice. Being an Essay on Election 
and Reprobation, in which the defects of Pelagianism, Calvinism, 
and Arminianism are impartially pointed out, and primitive, scriptural 
harmony is more fully restored to the Gospel of the day.' " 

This was not published until the year 1777 ; but it is 
mentioned here to show that, in substance, it was already 
written, and, thereby, to show the activity of Fletcher's mind, 
and the accumulated labours which soon broke down his 
health. 

No sooner was the publication of his " Scripture Scales," 
or " Equal Check to Pharisaism and Antinomianism," com- 
pleted, than he committed to the press the following : " The 
Fictitious and the Genuine Creed : Being ' A Creed for 
Arminians,' composed by Richard Hill, Esq. ; to which is 
opposed ' A Creed for those who believe that Christ tasted 
death for every man! By the author of the ' Checks to 
Antinomianism.' London, 1775." 12 mo, 52 pp. 

The reader will remember that, in bad taste, Fletcher, in 
1772, had published, in his "Fourth Check to Antinomian- 
ism," a "sweet gospel proclamation: Given at Geneva, and 



Age 46.] " The Fictitious and the Genuine Creed" 317 



signed by four of His Majesty's principal Secretaries of 
State for the Predestination Department — John Calvin, Dr. 
Crisp, The Author of P.O." (Richard Hill), " and Rowland 
Hill" This provoked Richard Hill ; and, when he published 
his " Three Letters written to the Rev. J. Fletcher, in the 
year 177 3," he, in equally bad taste, attached an "Appendix" 
to his Letters, entitled, " A Creed for Arminians and Per- 
fectionists." Now, in 1775, Fletcher felt it his duty to 
examine the Creed so ingeniously drawn up by Mr. Hill, 
and to expose its fallacies. The following is an extract 
from Fletcher's preface : — 

" With regard to our extensive views of Christ's redemption by price, 
Mr. Hill calls us Arminians : and with respect to our believing that 
there is no perfect faith, no perfect repentance in the grave ; that the 
Christian graces of repentance, faith, hope, patience, etc., must be 
perfected here or never ; and with respect to our confi deztce that Christ's 
blood, fully applied by His Spirit, and apprehended by faith, can cleanse 
our hearts from all unrighteousness before we go into the purgatory of 
the Calvinists , or into that of the papists, that is, before we go into 
the valley of the shadow of death, or into the suburbs of hell — with 
respect to this belief and co7tfidence, I say, Mr. Hill calls us Perfec- 
tionists ; and, appearing once more upon the stage of our controversy, 
he has lately presented the public with what he calls, 1 A Creed for 
Arminians and Perfectionists, which he introduces in these words : 
' The following confessio?z of faith, however shocking, not to say 
blasphemozis, it may appear to the hicmble Christian, mitst inevitably 
be adopted, if not iii express words, yet, in substaizce, by every 
Arminian and Perfectionist whatsoever ; though the last article of 
it chiefly concerns sicch as are ordained ministers in the Church of 
England: And, as among such ministers, Mr. J. Wesley, Mr. W. 
Sellon, and myself peculiarly oppose Mr. Hill's Calvinian doctrines of 
absolute election and reprobation, and of a death-purgatory , he has 
put the initial letters of our names to his Creed ; hoping, no doubt, to 
make us peculiarly ashamed of our principles. And, indeed, so should 
we be, if any 'blasphemous' or 'shocking' consequence 'inevitably' 
flowed from them." 

Probably, by this time, the reader is tired of Creeds. He 
has had Fletcher's Creed for an Antinomian ; Mr. Richard 
Hill's Creed for Arminians and Perfectionists ; and now he 
has, in " The Fictitious and the Genuine Creed," Fletcher's 
Creed for Methodists. The last may be dry reading, but it 
contains truths of the utmost importance, — truths which 
Fletcher spent the greatest part of his literary life in endea- 



3 1 8 Wesley's Designated Successor. [1775- 



vouring to explain and to defend ; and, speaking generally, 
truths which Wesley himself endorsed, embraced, and taught. 
Fletcher concludes his pamphlet with the following scrap of 
autobiography : — 

" I shall close this answer to the Creed, which Mr. Hill has composed 
for Arminians, by an observation which is not foreign to our contro- 
versy. In one of the ' Three Letters ' which introduce the Fictitious 
Creed, Mr. Hill" says, ' Controversy, I am fiersitaded, has not done me 
any good;' and he exhorts me to examine myself closely whether I 
cannot make the same confession. I own that it would have done me 
harm, if I had blindly contended for my opinions. Nay, if I had shut 
my eyes against the light of truth ; — if I had set the plainest Scriptures 
aside, as if they were not worth my notice ; — if I had overlooked the 
strongest arguments of my opponents ; — if I had advanced groundless 
charges against them ; — if I had refused to do justice to their good 
meaning or piety ; — and, above all, if I had taken my leave of them by 
injuring their moral character, by publishing over and over again argu- 
ments, which they have properly answered, without taking the least 
notice of their answers ; — if I had made a solemn promise not to read 
one of their books, though they should publish a thousand volumes ; — 
if, continuing to write against them, I had fixed upon them (as 'unavoid- 
able'' consequences) absurd tenets, which have no more necessary con- 
nexion with their principles than the doctrine of general redemption has 
with Calvinian reprobation. If I had done this, I say, controversy would 
have wounded my conscience or my reason ; and, without adding any- 
thing to my light, it would have immovably fixed me in nry prejudices, 
and perhaps branded me before the world for an Arminian bigot. But, 
as matters are, I hope I may make the following acknowledgments 
without betraying the impertinence of proud boasting. 

" Although I have often been sorry that controversy should take up 
so much of the time which I might, with much more satisfaction to 
myself, have employed in devotional exercises ; and although I have 
lamented, and do still lament, my low attainments in the meekness of 
wisdom, which should constantly guide the pen of every controversial 
writer; yet, I rejoice that I have been enabled to persist in my reso- 
lution either to wipe off, or to share the reproach of those who have 
hazarded their reputation in defence of pure and undefiled religion. 
And, if I am not mistaken, my repeated attempts have been attended 
with these happy effects :— 

" In vindicating the moral doctrines of grace, I hope that, as a man, 
I have learned to think more closely, and to investigate truth more 
ardently, than I did before. 

"Asa divine, I see more clearly the gaps and stiles, at which mis- 
taken good men have turned out of the narrow way of truth", to the right 
hand and to the left. 

»Asa Protestant, I hope I have much more esteem for the Scriptures 
in general, and in particular for those practical parts of them, which 



Age 46.] The Controversy has done Fletcher Good. 319 



the Calvinists had insensibly taught me to overlook, or despise. And 
this increasing esteem is, I trust, accompanied with a deeper conviction 
of the truth of Christianity, and with a greater readiness to defend the 
Gospel against infidels, Pharisees, and Antinomians. 

"As a Preacher, I hope I can now do more justice to a text by 
reconciling it with seemingly contrary Scriptures. 

"As an Anti-Calvinist, I have learned to do the Calvinists justice, 
in granting that there is an election of distingicishing grace for God's 
peculiar people, and a particidar redemption for all believers who are 
faithful unto death. I can more easily excuse pious Calvinists, who, 
through prejudice, mistake that Scriptural election for their Antino- 
mian election ; and who consider that particular redemption as the 
only redemption mentioned in the Scriptures. Nay, I can, without 
scruple, allow Mr. Hill that his doctrines of finished salvation and 
irresistible grace are true with respect to all those who die in their 
infancy. 

"As one who is called an Arminian^ I have found out some flaws in 
Arminianism, and evidenced my impartiality in pointing them out, as 
well as the flaws of Calvinism. 

"As a Witness for the truth of the Gospel, I hope I have learned to 
bear reproach from all sorts of people with more undaunted courage. 
And I humbly trust, that, were I called to seal with my blood the truth 
of the doctrines of grace and of justice, against the Pharisees and 
Antinomians, I could (Divine grace supporting me to the last) do it 
more rationally, and of consequence with greater steadiness. 

"As a Follozver of Christ, I hope I have learned to disregard my 
dearest friends for my Heavenly Prophet ; or, to speak the language of 
our Lord, I hope I have learned to forsake father, mother, and brothers 
for Christ's sake, and the Gospel's. 1 
/"" As a Disputant, I have learned that solid arguments, and plain 
Scriptures, make no more impression upon bigotry, than the charmer's 
voice does upon the deaf adder ; and, by that means, I hope, I depend J 
less upon the powers of reason, the letter of the Scriptures, and thex 
\candour of professors, than I formerly did. 
\liAs a Believer, I have been brought to see and feel that the power 
of the Spirit of truth, which teaches men to be of one heart, and of one 
mind, and makes them think and speak the same, is at a very low ebb 
in the religious world. 

"As a Member of the Church of England, I have learned to be 
pleased with our holy Mother, for giving us floods of pure morality to 
wash away the few remaining Calvinian freckles that remain upon her 
face. . 

"As a Christian, I hope I have learned, in some degree, to exercise 
that charity, which teaches us boldly to oppose a dangerous error 
without ceasing to honour and love its abettors, so far as they resemble 
our Lord. 

"And, lastly, as a Writer, I have learned to feel the truth of 
Solomon's observation, ' Of making many books there is no e?id, a7td 



320 



Wesley' } s Designated Successor. inas- 



much study is a weariness of the flesh : Let us hear the conclusion 
of the whole matter : Fear God and keej) His commandments ; for 
this is the zvhole duty of man ; ' and the sum of the Anti- Solifidian 
truth, which I endeavour to vindicate. 

"I do not say that I have learned any of these lessons as I should 
have done ; but I hope I have learned so much of them as to say that, 
in these respects, my controversial toil has not been altogether in vain 
in the Lord." 

The reader must excuse these long extracts ; for there 
seems to be no better way of giving a correct and full idea 
of Fletcher's views and character. 

At the end of the first edition of his pamphlet, Fletcher 
inserted the following " Advertisement " : — 

" Mr. Hill's ' Creed for Arminians y is followed by his plea for the 
inbred man of sin. This indirect and witty plea he calls, ' A Creed 
for Perfectionists' But, as that part of his performance has no im- 
mediate connection with the doctrines vindicated in the preceding 
pages, I design to make my remarks upon it in a separate Tract." 

This " Tract," as Fletcher calls it, seems to have been 
already written, for it was forthwith published, and entitled, 
" The Last Check to Antinomianism. A Polemical Essay 
on the Twin Doctrines of Christian Imperfection and a Death 
Purgatory. By the Author of the Checks. London: 1775. 
1 2 mo., 328 pp. 

/>. At this time, the Rev. Thomas Reader, a Dissenting 
Minister, at Taunton, held a position similar to that which 
had been held by Doddridge, at Northampton. He was the 
f President of a College for training Independent Ministers, 
and was a zealous Calvinist. When Fletcher's new book 
was published, Mr. Reader read it, and was so angry with 
its contents that he started off to Madeley, a long journey, | 
to rebuke the author for his heresy. Arriving at his des- I 
tination, he hastened to the vicarage, knocked loudly at the 
door, told the servant who he was, and requested an inter- j 
view with the Vicar. Fletcher, knowing him by name, ran ) 
from his study to receive his visitor, and spreading out his/ 
hands, exclaimed, " Come in, come in, thou blessed of the 
Lord ! Am I so honoured as to receive a visit from so esteemed 
a servant of my Master ? Let us have a little prayer, while 
refreshments are getting ready." Mr. Reader was puzzled. 



Age 46.] 



Christian Perfection. 



321 



He remained three days, but was utterly unable to muster | 
sufficient courage to even intimate the object of his visit. 
Afterwards he stated that he never enjoyed three days of 
such spiritual and profitable intercourse in all his life. 1 

Fletcher's books, prayers, conversations, and tempers were 
a glorious manifestation of the truths he taught in his 
elaborate and able treatise on Christian Perfection, — a treatise 
never equalled, except by the treatise and the sermons of 
Wesley on the same subject. Wesley and Fletcher are 
easily understood ; modern writers on this all-important 
doctrine are too often mystics, or, rather, mystifiers. The 
former expounded Scripture, the latter disastrously obscure 
Scripture by what they consider to be philosophy. The 
Methodists need no new exposition of this old Methodist 
truth. Never can it be more plainly stated and more in- 
disputably proved, than it is in the " Plain Account " of 
Wesley, and the " Polemical Essay " of his friend Fletcher. 
Well would it be if the present race of Methodists would read 
these, in preference to the bewildering trash so injuriously 
read in the stead of them. Truth never changes ! and 
changes of society can never justify the new settings forth of 
truth, nowadays so ignorantly demanded. 

A brief analysis of Fletcher's invaluable book, and a few 
extracts from it, must be given. 

In reference to the word " Perfection," which occasioned 
so much offence, Fletcher writes : — 

" Christian Perfection 7 Why should the harmless phrase offend 
us ? Perfectioit 7 Why should that lovely word frighten us ? The word 
predestinate occurs but four times in all the Scriptures ; and the word 
predestination not once ; and yet Mr. Hill would justly exclaim against 
us, if we showed our wit, by calling out for ' a little Foundery ' (or 
Tabernacle) ' eye- salve ' to help us to see the word predestination once 
in all the Bible. Not so the word perfection. It occurs, with its 
derivatives, as frequently as most words in the Scripture ; and not 
seldom in the very same sense in which we take it ; nevertheless, we do 
not lay an undue stress upon the expression ; and, if we thought that 
our condescension would answer any good end, we would give up that 
harmless and significant word." 

In reply to the unfair and untrue taunt that Wesley and 
1 "Methodism in North Devon," p. 115. 

21 



322 



Wesley 1 s Designated Successor, 



[1775. 



Fletcher taught the doctrine of sinless perfection, Fletcher 
makes an admirable quotation from Wesley : — 

"To explain myself a little farther on this head: 1. Not only SIN, 
properly so called, that is, a voluntary transgression of a known law, 
but sin improperly so called, that is, an involuntary transgression 
of a divine law, known or unknown, needs the atoning blood. 2. I 
believe there is no such perfection in this life, as excludes these in- 
voluntary transgressions, which T apprehend to be naturally con- 
sequent on the ignorance and mistakes inseparable from mortality. 
3. Therefore, sinless perfection is a phrase I never use, lest I should 
seem to contradict myself. 4. I believe a person filled with the love of 
God is still liable to these involuntary transgressions. 5. Such trans- 
gressions you may call sins if you please ; I do not, for the reasons 
above-mentioned. ' ' 

Fletcher then proceeds to prove that " Pious Calvinists 
have had, at times, nearly the same views of Christian Per- 
fection " that he and Wesley had. 

"They dissent from us," says he, "because they confound the anti- 
evangelical law of innocence and the evangelical law of liberty — 
peccability and sin — Adamic and Christian Perfection ; and because 
they do not consider that Christian Perfection, falling infinitely short of 
God's absolute perfection, admits of a daily growth. 

The third section of Fletcher's work is occupied with 
answers to popular objections ; and the fourth amply proves 
that the doctrine for which he is contending is a doctrine 
taught in the formularies of the Church of England. 

Mr. Hill, in the Eleventh Article of his "Fictitious Creed," 
had made Fletcher, Wesley, and Walter Sellon, not only 
deny " The Thirty-nine Articles of the Church of England," 
which they had " solemnly subscribed," but also the truthful 
teaching of four Apostolical writers in the New Testament. 
With excessively bad taste, he had represented them as 
saying, " Let Peter, Paul, James, and John say what they 
will, and let the Reformers and Martyrs join their syren- 
song, their eyes were at best but half opened, for want of a 
little Foundery eye-salve." Accordingly, the fifth and five 
following sections of Fletcher's book are devoted to a re- 
futation of this scandalous and almost profane slander. A 
large number of texts, from the Epistles of these four inspired 
writers, are most ably examined and explained, — texts 



Age 46.3 



Christian Perfection. 



323 



incontestably proving that the doctrine of Christian Per- 
fection was a doctrine taught by " Peter, Paul, James, and 
John." 

In the eleventh section of his book, Fletcher triumphantly 
answers the objections, founded upon certain texts in the 
writings of Solomon, Isaiah, and Job ; and in the twelfth he 
adduces " a variety of arguments to prove the absurdity of 
the twin doctrines of Christian Imperfection and a Death- 
Purgatory" In this, he furnishes a definition of Christian 
Perfection worthy of being quoted, namely : — - 

l< Christian Perfection is nothing but the depth of evangelical re- 
pentance, the full assurance of faith, and the pure love of God and 
man shed abroad in a faithful believers heart, by the Holy Ghost 
given unto him, to cleanse him, and to keep him clean, frvm all fllthi- 
ness of the flesh and Spirit; and to enable him to fulfil the law of 
Christ according to the talents he is entrusted with, and the circumr 
stances in which he is placed in this world." 



In the next section (the thirteenth) Fletcher dwells upon 
" the mischievousness of the doctrines of Christian Imperfec- 
tion, and a Death Purgatory!' He concludes his scathing 
arguments on this subject as follows : — 

" The modish doctrine of Christian imperfection and death-purgatory 
is so contrived that carnal men will always prefer the purgatory of the 
Calvinists to that of the Papists. For the Papists prescribe I know not 
how many cups of divine wrath and dire vengeance, which are to be 
drunk by the souls of believers who die half -purged, or three parts 
cleansed. These half -damned, or a quarter -damned creatures must 
go through a severe discipline, and fiery salvation in the very suburbs 
of hell, before they can be perfectly purified. But our opponents have 
found out a way to deliver half-hearted believers out of all fear in this 
respect. Such believers need not utterly abolish the body of sin in 
this world. The inbred man of sin not only may, but he shall live as 
long as we do. You will possibly ask : ' What is to become of this 
sinful guest ? Shall he take us to hell, or shall we take him to heaven ? 
If he cannot die in this world, will Christ destroy him in the next?' 
No : here Christ is almost left out of the question. Our indwelling 
adversary is not to be destroyed by the brightness of the Redeemer's 
spiritual appearing, but by the gloom of the appearance of death. The 
king of terrors comes to the assistance of Jesus' s sanctifying grace, and 
instantaneously delivers the carnal believer from indwelling pride, un- 
belief, covetousness, peevishness, uncharitableness, love of the world, 
and inordinate affection. The dying sinner's breath does the capital 
work of the Spirit of holiness. By the most astonishing of all miracles, 




324 



Wesley* s Designated Successor, 



[1775- 



the faint, infectious, last gasp of a sinful believer blows away, in the 
twinkling of an eye, the great mountain of inward corruption, which all 
the means of grace, all the faith, prayers, and sacraments of twent} 7 ', 
perhaps of forty years, were never able to remove. If this doctrine is 
true, how greatly was St. Paul mistaken when he said, ' The sting of 
death is sin.' Should he not have said, Death is the cure of sin, 
instead of saying, ' Sin is the sting of death ' ? And should not his 
praises flow thus, — ' Thanks be to God who gives us the victory through 
death ; our great and only deliverer from our greatest and fiercest 
enemy, indwelli?ig sin ' ? " 

The fourteenth section of Fletcher's book is employed in 
answering the false and pernicious statements contained in 
Toplady's " Caveat against Unsound Doctrine," and Martin 
Madan's " Essay on Galatians v. 1 7." In the two following 
sections, Fletcher proves that his doctrine of Christian per- 
fection " cannot be justly reproached as Popish, and Pelagian ; 
and shows the distinction which exists " between sins and 
innocent infirmities. Then he concludes his invaluable book 
with four Addresses: I. "To perfect Christian Pharisees; 
2. To prejudiced Imperfectionists ; 3. To imperfect Perfec- 
tionists ; and 4. To perfect Christians." These addresses 
will always rank among the most powerful productions of 
Fletcher's pen ; but, for want of space, only one extract 
from them can be given here ; and even that is, to a large 
extent, an extract from Wesley's Sermon on " The Scripture 
Way of Salvation." It is, however, of the highest import- 
ance, as containing an answer to the question, How are we 
to be "sanctified, saved from sin, and perfected in love?" 
Fletcher writes : — - 

" I have already pointed out the close connexion there is between an 
act of faith which fuiiy apprehends the sanctifying promise of the 
Father, and the power of the Spirit of Christ which makes an end of 
moral corruption by forcing the lingering man of sin instantaneously 
to breathe out his last. Mr. Wesley, in the above quoted sermon, 
touches upon this delicate subject in so clear and concise a manner, 
that, while his discourse is before me, for the sake of those who" have it 
not in hand, I shall transcribe the whole passage, and, by this means, 
put the seal of that eminent divine to what I have advanced, in the 
preceding pages, about sanctifying faith, and the quick destruction 
of sin. 

" ' Does God work this great work in the soul gradually or instan- 
taneously ? Perhaps it may be gradually wrought in some, I mean in 



Age 46.] 



Christian Perfection. 



325 



this sense : They do not advert to the particular moment, wherein sin 
ceases to be. But it is infinitely desirable, were it the will of God, 
that it should be done instantaneously ; that the Lord should destroy 
sin by the breath of His mouth, in a moment, in the twinkling of an 
eye. And so He generally does, — a plain fact, of which there is evidence 
enough to satisfy any unprejudiced person. Thou therefore look for it 
every moment. Look for it in the way above described ; 1 in all those 
good woks, whereunto thou art created anew in Christ Jesus. There is 
then no danger; you can be no worse, if you are no better for that 
expectation. For were you to be disappointed of your hope, still you 
lose nothing. But you shall not be disappointed of your hope ; it will 
come, and will not tarry. Look for it then every day, every hour, every 
moment. Why not this hour, this moment ? Certainly you may look 
for it now, if you believe it is by faith. And by this token you may 
surely know whether you seek it by faith or works. If by works, you 
want something to be done first, before you are sanctified. You think, 
' I must first be or do thus or thus.' Then you are seeking it by works 
unto this day. If you seek it by faith, you may expect it as you are ; 
and, if as you are, then expect it now. It is of importance to observe 
that there is an inseparable connexion between these three points, 
expect it by faith, expect it as you are, and expect it now. To deny 
one of them is to deny them all ; to allow one is to allow them all. Do 
you believe we are sanctified by faith ? Be true then to your principle ; 
and look for this blessing just as you are, neither better, nor worse ; 
as a poor sinner, that has still nothing to pay, nothing to plead, but — 
Christ died. And if you look for it as you are, then expect it now. 
Stay for nothing, why should you ? Christ is ready, and He is all you 
want. He is waiting for you ; He is at the door ! Let your inmost 
soul cry out, — 

" ' Come in, come in, Thou heavenly guest ! 
Xor hence again remove : 
But sup with me, and let the feast 
Be everlasting love.' " (p. 288). 

Well would it be, for the Church and the world, if these 



1 After most ably arguing the matter, Wesley, in the sermon here 
referred to, concludes "that faith is the only condition which is i?nme- 
diately and proximately necessary to sanctification ; " and that the 
"faith whereby we are sanctified — saved from sin, and perfected in 
love, is a divine evidence and conviction, first, that God hath promised 
it in the Holy Scripture ; secondly, that what God hath promised, He is 
able to perform ; thirdly, that He" is able and willing to do it now ; and, 
fourthly, a divine evidence and conviction that He doeth it. In that 
hour," continues Wesley, "it is done; God says to the inmost soul, 
'According to_ thy faith, be it unto thee ! ' Then the soul is pure from 
every spot of sin ; it is clean 'from all unrighteousness.' The believer 
then experiences the deep meaning of those solemn words, ' If we walk 
in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, 
and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin.'" 



326 



Wesley's Designated Successor. [1775- 



views of Wesley and his friend Fletcher were held by all 
the Methodists of the present age, or even by a thousandth 
part of them. How often are they preached in Methodist 
pulpits ? Not so often as they ought to be ! " Where 
Christian perfection is not strongly and explicitly preached," 
said Wesley, "there is seldom any remarkable blessing from 
God ; and, consequently, little addition to the Society, and 
little life in the members of it." 1 

The year 1775 was to Fletcher one of the busiest in his 
life. He was steeped in controversy ; but he rose in piety. 
In a letter to his friend Joseph Benson, he wrote : — 

" I have had two printers at my heels, besides my common business, 
and this is enough to make me trespass upon the patience of my friends. 
I have published the first part of my 'Scales,' which has gone through 
a second edition in London, before I could get the second part printed 
in Salop, where it will be published in about six weeks. I have also 
published a creed for the Arminians, where you will see that, if I have 
not answered your critical remarks upon my Essay on Truth, I have 
improved by them, yea publicly recanted the two expressions you men- 
tioned as improper. 

"I am so tied up here, both by my parish duty and controversial 
writings, that I cannot hope to see you unless you come into these 
parts. 2 In the meantime, let us meet at the throne of grace. In Jesus, 
time and distance are lost. He is an universal, eternal life of righteous- 
ness, peace, and joy. I am glad you have some encouragement in 
Scotland. The Lord grant you more and more ! Use yourself, how- 
ever, to go against wind and tide, as I do ; and take care that our wise 
dogmatical friends in the north do not rob you of your childlike sim- 
plicity. Remember that the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven are 
revealed to babes. You may be afraid of being a fool, without being 
afraid of being a babe. You maybe childlike without being childish. 
Simplicity of intention and purity of affection will go through the world, 
through hell itself. In the meantime, let us see that we do not so look 
at our little publications, or to other people, as to forget that Christ is 
our Object, our Sun, our Shield. To His inspiration, comfort, and 
protection, I earnestly recommend your soul ; and the labours of your 
heart, tongue, and pen to His blessing." 3 

At this period, Wesley was dangerously ill in Ireland. 



1 Wesley's Works, vol. xii., p. 252. 

2 Joseph Benson was appointed to the Edinburgh Circuit at the Con- 
ference of 1774; and to the Newcastle Circuit at the Conference of 
I 775- 

3 Benson's " Life of Fletcher." 



Age 46.] Wesley Dangerously III. 327 



Charles Wesley had no hope of his brother's recovery. The 
Methodists throughout the kingdom were in consternation. 
In a letter to Joseph Bradford, Wesley's faithful companion, 
Charles Wesley wrote : — 

"Bristol, June 29, 1775. Your letter has cut off all hope of my 
brother's recovery. The people here, and in London, and every place, 
are swallowed up in sorrow. But sorrow and death will soon be swal- 
lowed up in life everlasting. You will be careful of my brother's 
papers, etc., till you see his executors. God shall reward your fidelity 
and love. I seem scarce separated from him whom I shall so very soon 
overtake. We were united in our lives, and in our death not divided." 1 

In his deep distress, Charles Wesley wrote to Fletcher, 
who replied as follows : — 

"Madeley, July 2, 1775. 

"My Very Dear Brother, — The same post which brought me 
yours, brought me a letter from Ireland, informing me of the danger of 
your dear brother, my dear father, and of his being very happy in, and 
resigned to, the will of God. What can you and I do ? What, but 
stand still, and see the salvation of God ? The nations are before Him 
but as the dust that cleaves to a balance ; and the greatest instruments 
have been removed. Abraham is dead ; the fathers are dead ; and if 
John come first to the sepulchre, you and I will soon descend into it. 
The brightest, the most burning and shining lights, like the Baptist, 
Mr. Whitefield, and your brother, were kindled to make the people 
rejoice in them, ' for a season,' says our Lord. ' For a season.' The 
expression is worth our notice. It is just as if our Lord had said, 
' I give you inferior lights, that ye may rejoice in them for a season. 
But I reserve to myself the glory of shining for ever. The most burning 
lights shall fail on earth ; but I, your Sun, will shine to all eternity.' 

" Come, my dear brother, let the danger of our lights make us look 
to our Sun more steadily ; and should God quench the light of our 
Jerusalem below, let us rejoice that it is to make it burn brighter in the 
Jerusalem which is above ; and let us triumph in the inextinguishable 
light of our Sun, in the impenetrable strength of our Shield, and in the 
immovableness of our Rock. 

" Amidst my concern for the Church in general, and for Mr. Wesley's 
Societies in particular, I cannot but acknowledge the goodness of God 
in so wonderfully keeping him for so many years, and in preserving him 
to undergo such labours as would have killed you and me ten times over. 
The Lord may yet hear prayer and add a span to his useful life. But 
forasmuch as the immortality of the body does not belong to this state, 
and he has fulfilled the ordinary term of human life, in hoping the best, 



1 Tyerman's "Life and Times of Wesley," vol. iii., p. 204. 



328 Wesley* s Designated Successor. [1775- 



we must prepare ourselves for the worst. The God of all grace and 
power will strengthen you on the occasion. 

" Should your brother fail on earth, you are called not only to bear up 
under the loss of so near a relative, but, for the sake of your common 
children in the Lord, you should endeavour to fill up the gap according 
to your strength . The Methodists will not expect from yon your brother' s 
labours ; but they have, I think, a right to expect that you will preside 
over them while God spares you in the land of the living. A committee 
of the oldest and steadiest preachers may help you to bear the burden 
and to keep up a proper discipline both among the people and the rest 
of the preachers ; and if at any time you should want my mite of assist- 
ance, I hope I shall throw it into the treasury with the simplicity and 
readiness of the poor widow, who cheerfully offered her next to nothing. 
Do not faint. The Lord God of Israel will give you additional strength 
for the day ; and His angels, yea, His praying people, will bear you up 
in their hands, that you hurt not your foot against a stone ; yea, that if 
need be, you may leap over a wall. 

" I am by this time grey-headed as well as you, and some of my par- 
ishioners tell me that the inroads of time are uncommonly visible upon 
my face. Indeed, I feel as well as see it myself, and learn what only 
time, trials, and experience can teach. Should your brother be called 
to his reward, I would not be free to go to London till you and the 
preachers had settled all matters. My going just at such a time " [as 
this] " would carry the appearance of vanity, which I abhor. It would 
seem as if I wanted to be somebody among the Methodists. 

"We here heartily join the prayers of the brethren for your brother, 
for you, and the Societies. Paper fails, not love. Be careful for nothing. 
Cast your burden upon the Lord, and He will sustain you. Farewell in 
Christ." 1 

Two and a half years before this dangerous illness, Wesley 
had requested Fletcher to be his successor in presiding over 
the Methodists. Perhaps Charles Wesley was aware of this. 
At all events, he appears to have wished Fletcher to come to 
London in the great crisis which had now occurred. Fletcher 
modestly declined ; and, fortunately for both, no successor 
of Wesley was needed until several years after both were 
dead. 

Fletcher's " Checks to Antinomianism " were ended. For 
four years, he had taxed his energies to the utmost ; but the 
work he undertook in 1 77 1 was now nearly concluded. The 
doctrines of Wesley's "Minutes" had been carefully explained, 
minutely defended, and lovingly enforced. 



1 Jackson's " Life of C. Wesley," vol. ii., p. 302. 



Age 4 6.] ' ' Checks to Antinomianism 9 ' finished, 329 



" In his 'Checks to Antinomianism,'" wrote Wesley, " one knows 
not which to admire most — the purity of the language, the strength 
and clearness of the argument, or the mildness and sweetness of the 
spirit that breathes throughout the whole. Insomuch that I nothing 
wonder at a serious clergyman, who being resolved to live and die in 
his own opinion, when he was pressed to read them replied, ' No, I will 
never read Mr. Fletcher's " Checks," for if I did, I should be of his 
mind.'" 1 

Of course, contrary opinions have been expressed. The 
author of " The Life and Times of the Countess of Hunt- 
ingdon " tells his readers that, — 

"Fletcher dazzled with eloquence instead of reasoning, and sub- 
stituted tropes for arguments. He was too loquacious for a deep 
reasoner, and too impassioned to investigate duly the most profound 
and awful themes which can occupy the human understanding." 

Isaac Taylor, also, in his " Wesley and Methodism," takes 
the same position. He acknowledges that, — 

" In a genuine sense, Fletcher was a saint ; a saint such as the Church 
of every age has produced a few samples. Sanctity and purity of manners 
were his distinctive characteristics. He was as unearthly a being as 
could tread the earth at all ; and his Methodism was Christianity as little 
lowered by admixture of human infirmity as we may hope to find it any- 
where on earth." But while "as a theologian he possessed acquaintance 
enough with doctrinal literature and with the Scriptures to give him 
always a point or two of advantage in relation to his antagonists, he 
was no such reasoner, he was no such master of Biblical criticism, 
as might have made it possible for him to overstep the limits of his 
appointed task, or, as a theological writer, to survive his day." 2 

The first of these critics was too much of a Calvinist to 
do justice to Fletcher, an Arminian ; and it is not rash to 
say respecting the second, that it is extremely doubtful 
whether he had carefully perused the writings he condemns. 
At all events, his assertion that " as a theological writer " 
Fletcher did not "survive his day," is utterly untrue. Fletcher's 
" Checks " are as much read to-day as they were a hundred 
years ago. The demand for them increases almost every 



1 Wesley's " Life of Fletcher." 

2 Robert Southey wrote, -' Mr. Fletcher's manner is diffuse, and the 
florid parts and the unction betray their French origin ; but the reason- 
ing is acute and clear, the spirit of his writings is beautiful, and he was 
a master of the subject in all its bearings." 



330 Wesley's Designated Successor. [1775- 



year, both in England and in America ; and they are found 
in every land where Methodism has been founded. At the 
time when they were first published, they occasioned exas- 
peration among the Calvinian Methodists, but that was not 
the fault of their distinguished author. What was called 
" bitterness " in Fletcher was not bitterness of temper, but 
" of unwelcome doctrine, set forth with all the advantages of 
language, confidence, and argument." Soon after they were 
completed, a Dissenting minister at Bristol called upon 
Fletcher, when, to all human appearance, he was dying, and 
rudely said, " You had better have been confined to your 
bed by palsy than have written so many bitter things against 
the dear children of God." "My brother," replied the invalid, 
" I hope I have not been bitter. Certainly I did not mean 
to be so ; but I wanted more love then, and I feel I want 
more now." 1 Fletcher's soft answer silenced his sour assailant, 
and sent him away, it is to be hoped, a wiser and better man. 

It is a pleasant fact to put on record that Fletcher and 
his opponents in the Calvinian controversy lived long enough 
to be affectionately reconciled to each other. Shirley, the 
first in the field, had, at least, one brotherly interview with 
Fletcher, in Ireland. 2 In the Methodist Museum at the 
Centenary Hall, London, there is an unpublished letter, which 
Mr. Richard Hill wrote to Fletcher in 1784, full of Christian 
affection. Rowland Hill, with admirable candour, said of 
his own writings, " A softer style and spirit would better 
have become me ; " and he also suppressed the sale of one 
of his severest publications. 3 Then as it respects dear old 
Berridge at Everton, it will be seen, in a succeeding chapter, 
that he and Fletcher were more than reconciled to each other. 
Their meeting at Everton, in the month of December, 1776, 
is one of the most charming incidents recorded in Methodistic 
annals. 

Another name must be introduced. Dr. Thomas Coke 
was now twenty-eight years of age. He had taken his 
degrees at Oxford, had received episcopal ordination, and 
was now curate at South Petherton. As yet, he had not 

1 Wesley an Methodist Magazine, 1823, p. 107. 

2 Stevens's " History of Methodism." 

3 Sidney's " Life of Rev. Rowland Hill." 



Age 46. 



Dr. Thomas Coke. 



331 



been introduced to Wesley ; but he had read his sermons 
and journals, and also the " Checks ,; of Fletcher, — all kindly 
lent to him by the Rev. Mr. Brown, a clergyman residing in 
the neighbourhood of Taunton. A year elapsed before 
Wesley met him, but in the meantime, the young curate 
wrote the following letter 1 to Fletcher : — 

"South Petherton, near Crewkerne, Somerset, 
" August 28, 1775. 
"Rev. Sir, — I take the liberty, though unknown to you, but not 
unacquainted with your admirable publications, of writing you a letter 
of sincerest thanks for the spiritual instruction, as well as entertainment, 
they have afforded me ; and for the spirit of candour and Christian 
charity which breathes throughout your writings. The charming cha- 
racter which my best of earthly friends (the Rev. Mr. Brown, of Kingston, 
near Taunton), has given me of you, emboldens me to hope that, though 
my situation in life be only that of a poor curate of a parish, you will 
excuse this liberty I have taken of addressing you in the fulness of my 
heart. 

"You are indubitably, Sir, a sincere friend of the Gospel of Jesus 
Christ. I also am an humble admirer of the blessed Jesus, and it is on 
that foundation only I would wish, and it is on that only I am sure I 
can recommend myself to you. 

"Your excellent ' Checks to Antinomianism ' have riveted me in an 
abhorrence and detestation of the peculiar tenets of Calvin, and the 
monstrous errors into which those great and good men, Bishops Hopkins 
and Beveridge, have run, have frequently filled me with wonder. 

" Your ' Essay on Truth ' has been more particularly blessed to me. 
Your ' Scripture Scales ' I am just going to read with great attention. 
Many thanks to you for your treatise on the ' Fallen State of Man.' It 
has been of service to me, and of much more, I have reason to think, to 
many of my congregation. 

" O, Sir, I have frequently prayed to my God that He will make you 
a great pillar of His Church. In return, I do humbly beg that you will 
pray for me. I am sure you will grant me the favour when I inform you 
that (as nearly as I can guess) a thousand or more immortal souls come 
to me on every- Lord's Day, in the afternoon, to receive their portion of 
the manna of the Word, the bread of everlasting life. 

" I will so far transgress against the public and your dear flock as to 
request an answer. I am almost afraid to hope for more. May the God 
who loves you, and whom you love, make you a great instrument of His 
glory in this life, and grant you the height ofyour ambition in the next. 

"I am, Rev. Sir, with great respect, your much obliged and very 
humble servant, 

"Thomas Coke." 

J _ The letter is copied, verbatim, from the original, in the Wesleyan 
Mission House collection, Bishopsgate Street, London. 



332 Wesley's Designated Successor. [1775- 



Little, at this time, did the obscure Dr. Coke imagine 
that, eight years afterwards, Fletcher would be one of the 
first twenty-six subscribers to the Methodist " Society for 
the Establishment of Missions among the Heathen," which 
Coke and a few of his friends then instituted. 

One more fact respecting the "Checks to Antinomianism " 
must be added. The Rev. Thomas Jackson, a good authority, 
remarks : — 

" Mr. Charles Wesley took a lively interest in the rise and progress 
of this " [the Calvinian] " controversy, though his name has rarely been 
connected with it. He corresponded with his friend, the Vicar of Madeley, 
and encouraged him in his arduous undertaking. Mr. Fletcher trans- 
mitted his manuscripts to him for revision, begging of him to expunge 
every expression that was calculated to give unnecessary pain, and to 
pay especial attention to the grammar and theology of the whole. He 
also confided to Mr. Charles Wesley the task of conducting them 
through the press, the correction of which was inconvenient to himself, 
because of his distance from London. The fact is, that nearly every- 
thing that Mr. Fletcher published, not even excepting his political 
tracts and his treatise on original sin, passed under the eye and hand 
of Air. Charles Wesley before it was given to the world. Not that the 
compositions of his friend needed much emendation, but his criticisms 
gave Mr. Fletcher confidence, and were highly valued. In 1775, Mr. 
Fletcher said to him, '. Nobody helps me but you ; and you know how 
little you do it. Deprive me not of that little. Your every hint is a 
blessing to me.' " 1 

A letter to Charles Wesley will fitly close the present 
chapter. 

" Madeley, December 4, 1775. 

" My Very Dear Brother, — I see the end of my controversial race, 
and I have such courage to finish it, that I think it my bounden duty to 
run and strike my blow, and fire my gun, before the water of discourage- 
ment has quite wetted the powder of my activity. This makes me seem 
to neglect my dearest correspondents. 

" Old age comes faster upon me than upon you. I am already so 
grey-headed, that I wrote to my brother to know if I am not fifty-six 
instead of forty-six. The wheel of time moves so rapidly, that I seem 
to be in a new element ; and yet, praised be God ! my strength is pre- 
served far better than I could expect. I came home last night at eleven 
o'clock tolerably well, after reading prayers and preaching twice and 



Jackson's " Life of C. Wesley," vol. ii., p. 294. 



Age 46.] Letter to Charles Wesley. 333 



giving the sacrament in my own church, and preaching again and 
meeting a few people in Society at the next market-town. 

"The Lord is wonderfully gracious to me, and, what is more to me 
than many favours, He helps me to see His mercies in a clearer light. 
In years past, I did not dare to be thankful for mercies, which now make 
me shout for joy. I had been taught to call them common mercies, 
and I made as little of them as apostates do of the blood of Christ, when 
they call it a common thing. But now the veil begins to rend, and I 
invite you and all the world to praise God for His patience, truth, and 
lovingkindness, which have followed me all my days. O how I hate 
the delusion, which has robbed me of so many comforts ! 

" Farewell ! I am, etc., 

"J. Fletcher." 1 



1 Letters, 1791, p. 226. 



334 



Wesley s Designated Successor. 



[1776. 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

PUBLICATIONS IN THE YEAR 
1776. 

EXCEPT his posthumous works, the remainder of 
Fletcher's writings were issued during the next two 
years, 1776 and 1777. These will be briefly noticed in the 
present chapter. During the last four years, his antagonists 
had been Walter Shirley, Richard Hill, Rowland Hill, and 
John Berridge. Now he encountered three others — Augustus 
Montague Toplady, the well-known Vicar of Broad Hembury, 
in Devonshire ; Caleb Evans, an eminent Baptist minister 
at Bristol ; and, in connection with Mr. Evans, the celebrated 
Rev. Richard Price, D.D., an Arian minister, at Hackney, 
London*. 

Methodist readers are so familiar with the life and character 
of Toplady, as to render it unnecessary to refer to them in 
the present pages. Suffice it to say, that this remarkable 
and strangely constituted man seems to have been almost as 
much prejudiced against Fletcher as he was against Wesley. 
" I was lately asked," said he, " what my opinion is of 
Mr. John Fletcher's writings. My answer was, that, in the 
very few pages I had perused, the serious passages were 
dulness double condensed ; and the lighter passages, impu- 
dence double distilled." 1 

In 1770, Wesley published his tract, entitled, "The Doctrine 
of Absolute Predestination Stated and Asserted." This was 
a faithful abridgment of Toplady's translation of Zanchius's 
once famous book, 2 and concluded with the well-known 
paragraph : — 

1 Toplady's "Posthumous Works," 1780, p. 234. 

2 Toplady's Translation was published at the end of the year 1769. 



Age 46.] 



Toplady. 



335 



"The sum of all is this: one in twenty (suppose) of mankind are 
elected ; nineteen in twenty are reprobated. The elect shall be saved* 
do what they will ; the reprobate shall be damned, do what they can. 
Reader, believe this, or be damned. Witness my hand, 

"A T ." 

Toplady was terribly enraged, and immediately published 
"A Letter to the Rev. Mr. John Wesley : relative to his 
pretended Abridgment of Zanchius on Predestination." In 
1 77 1, Wesley replied to this, in his tract entitled, "The 
Consequence Proved," — the object of which was to establish 
the paragraph which had occasioned Toplady such huge 
offence. A year later, Toplady published his " More Work 
for Mr. John Wesley ; or, A Vindication of the Decrees and 
Providence of God from the Defamation of a late printed 
paper, entitled, ' The Consequence Proved.' " Wesley had 
no time and no inclination to continue the controversy ; 
but handed over the angry Vicar of Broad Hembury to the 
tender mercies of Thomas Olivers and Fletcher. Olivers' 
tart pamphlet need not be further mentioned ; but, in refer- 
ence to Fletcher, it may be added, that, in a letter to Mr. 
Richard Hill, dated "March 12, 1773," Toplady wrote : — 

"I am told that Mr. Fletcher has it in contemplation to make an 
attack on me too. He is welcome. I am ready for him. Nor shall 
I, in that case, altogether imitate the examples of yourself and your 
brother ; unless Mr. Fletcher should treat me with more decency than 
he has, hitherto, observed towards others. Tenderness, 'tis very evident, 
has no effect on Mr. Wesley and his pretended family of love. Witness 
the rancour with which Mr. Hervey's 1 memory and works are treated 
by that lovely family. For my own part, I shall never attempt to hew 
such millstones with a feather. They must be served as nettles ; press 
them close, and they cannot sting. Yet have they my prayers and my 
best wishes for their present and future salvation. But not one hair's 
breadth of the Gospel will I ever offer at their shrine, or sacrifice to 
their idol." 2 

Toplady's information that Fletcher intended to "attack" 
him was quite correct ; but, for the present, Fletcher was 
so occupied with his "Checks to Antinomianism," that two 
years elapsed before he could devote attention to his new 
antagonist. 



The well-known Rev. James Hervey. 
Toplady's " Posthumous Works," 1780, p. 343. 



336 Wesley's Designated Successor. [1776. 



Toplady had no need to tell Mr. Richard Hill, in 1773, 
that, in any future replies he might make to the attacks of 
Wesley, Fletcher, or their friends, he would not be sparing 
in the language that he used • for, in his " Letter" to Wesley 
in 1770, and his " More Work for Wesley" in 1772, he had 
employed abuse which is, perhaps, unparalleled in religious 
literature, and for which it is difficult to account. Wesley 
was charged, by this young man of thirty years, with using 
" all the sophistry of a Jesuit, and the dictatorial authority 
of a pope." He had descended to his " customary resource 
of false quotations, despicable invective, and unsupported 
dogmatisms." His "phraseology" was "as pregnant with 
craft as his conduct" was " destitute of honour." " By his 
deep-laid, but soon detected, cunning, — by his avowed vacuity 
of candour, truth, and shame, he has, in the general estimation 
of all unprejudiced people, gotten a wound and dishonour 
and reproach which all his whining and winding sophistry 
will never be able to wipe away." " Perversion and falsifica- 
tion are essential figures in this man's rhetoric." " Unless 
God give Mr. Wesley repentance to the acknowledging of 
the truth, the unparalleled perverseness with which he 
labo.urs to blacken some doctrines of Christianity will be 
the burden of his soul in the hour of death and in the 
day of judgment." 

These are really mild — very mild — specimens of Toplady's 
unaccountable abuse of Wesley. How the same man could 
write, " Rock of ages, cleft for me," and other hymns quite 
as exquisite, it is difficult to conceive. 

Fletcher's long-expected reply was published in 1776, 
with the following title-page, " An Answer to the Rev. Mr. 
Toplady's ' Vindication of the Decrees,' etc. By the Author 
of the Checks. London : Printed in the year 1776." 
i2mo, 133 pp. 

Fletcher disposes of Toplady's abusive language in his 
" Introduction." He writes : — ■ 

"If Mr. Toplady, in his controversial heat, has forgotten what he 
owed to Mr. Wesley and to himself, this is no reason why I should 
forget the title of my book, which calls me to point out the bad argu- 
ments of our opponents, and not their ill humour. If I absurdly spent 
my time in passing a censure upon Mr. Toplady's spirit, he would, with 



Age 46.] 



Fletcher answers Toplady. 



337 



reason, say, as he does in the introduction to his 'Historical Proof,' 1 
page 35, ' What has my pride or my humility to do with the argument 
in hand ? Whether I am haughty or meek, is of no more consequence 
either to that, or to the public, than whether I am tall or short.' Besides, 
having, again and again, myself requested our opponents not to wiredraw 
the controversy by personal reflections, but to weigh with candour the 
arguments which are offered, I should be inexcusable if I did not set 
them the example. Should it be said that Mr. Wesley's character, 
which Mr. Toplady has so severely attacked, is at stake, and that I 
ought purposely to stand up in his defence ; I reply, that the personal 
charges which Mr. Toplady interweaves with his arguments have been 
already fully answered by Mr. Olivers ; 2 and that these charges being 
chiefly founded upon Mr. Toplady' s logical mistakes, they will, of their 
own accord, fall to the ground, as soon as the mistakes on which they 
rest shall be exposed. May the God of truth and love grant, that, if 
Mr. Toplady has the honour of producing the best arguments, 1, for one, 
may have the advantage of yielding to them ! To be conquered by truth 
and love, is to prove conqueror over our two greatest enemies, — error 
and sin." 

What a contrast between Fletcher and Toplady ! Both 
were men of genius ; both were scholars ; both were clergy- 
men of the Church of England ; both were polemics ; but 
one was meek in heart — the other just the opposite ; one 
was a gentleman — the other, notwithstanding his ability and 
eloquence, was a traducer. 

As already stated, the short paragraph which Wesley 
appended to his abridgment of Toplady's translation of 
Zanchius's " Doctrine of Absolute Predestination Stated and 
Asserted" infuriated the Vicar of Broad Hembury to an 
almost incredible degree. Toplady employed, what Fletcher 
calls, seventy-three " arguments" but which might more cor- 
rectly be called dogmatisms, in replying to Wesley's exposure 
of Calvinian predestination. Fletcher, in his "Answer" deals 
with these, one by one, seriatim. Toplady was overmatched, 
and his "arguments" were shown to be fallacies. Through- 
out his able book, Fletcher never loses his temper, and 
never indulges in vituperation. The strongest language he 
uses is found in his concluding paragraphs, as follows : — 



1 Toplady's "Historic Proof of the Doctrinal Calvinism of the Church 
of England ; " published, in two volumes, in 1774. 

2 In "A Letter to the Rev. Mr. Toplady, occasioned by his late 
Letter to Mr, Wesley. By Thomas Olivers, 1771." i2mo, 60 pp. 



22 



338 Wesley s Designated Successor. [1776. 



" I humbly hope that I have, in the preceding- pages, contended for 
the truth of the Gospel, and the honour of God's perfections. My con- 
science bears me witness, that I have endeavoured to do it with the 
sincerity of a candid inquirer after truth ; and that I have not, knowingly, 
leaped over one material difficulty which Mr. Toplady has thrown in 
the way of the laborious divine whose evangelical principles I vindicate. 
And now, judicious reader, if I have done my part as a detecter of the 
fallacies by which the modern doctrines of grace are ' kept upon their 
legs,' let me prevail upon thee to do thy part as a judge, and to say if 
the right leg of Calvinism, that is, the lawless election of an unscriptural 
grace, so draws thy admiration as to make thee overlook the deformity 
of the left leg, that is, the absurd, unholy, sin-ensuring, hell-procuring, 
merciless, and unjust reprobation which Mr. Toplady has attempted to 
vindicate. Shall thy reason, thy conscience, thy feelings, thy Bible, 
and, what is more than this, shall all the perfections of tlry God, and 
the veracity of thy Saviour, be sacrificed on the altar of a reprobation 
which none of the prophets, apostles, and early fathers ever heard of? — 
a barbarous reprobation which heated Augustine drew from the horrible 
error of Manichean necessity, and clothed with some Scripture expressions 
detached from the context, and wrested from their original meaning ? — 
a Pharisaic reprobation, which the Church of Rome took from him, and 
which some of our reformers unhappily brought from that corrupted 
Society into the Protestant Churches ? — in a word, a reprobation which 
disgraces Christianity, when that holy religion is considered as a system 
of evangelical doctrine, as much as our most enormous crimes disgrace 
it, when it is considered as a system of pure morality ? Shall such a 
reprobation, I say, find a place in thy creed ? yea, among thy doctrines 
of grace ? God forbid ! 

" I hope better things of thy candour, good sense, and piety. If 
prejudice, human authority, and voluntary humility, seduce many good 
men into a profound reverence for that stupendous dogma, be not carried 
away by their number, or biassed b}^ their shouts. Be not afraid to ' be 
pilloried in a preface, flogged at a pamphlet's tail,' and treated as a 
knave, a felon, or a blasphemer through the whole of the next vindication 
of the^deified 1 decrees, which are commonly called ' Calvinism.' This 
may be thy lot, if thou darest to bear thy plain testimony against the 
Antinomian idol of the day." 

Fletcher's conflict with Toplady was continued. Hence 
the following " Advertisement," affixed to the first edition of 
the book just dismissed : — 

" Since these sheets have been prepared for the press, I have seen a 
new performance of Mr. Toplady, in defence of the doctrine which is 
exposed in the preceding pages. As there are, in that piece, some ?iew 



1 ' ' Mr. Toplady calls them ' the decrees of God ; ' and it is an axiom 
among the Calvinists, that ' God's decrees are God Himself.' " 



Age 46.] Toplady again Attacks Wesley, 



339 



arguments, the plausibility of which may puzzle many readers ; and as 
I think it my duty fully to vindicate the truth, and co?npletely to detect 
error ; I design to answer that book also, in a little tract, which will be 
a supplement to this, and which will probably see the light under the 
following title, 1 A Reply to the Principal Arguments by which the 
Calvinists and the Fatalists Support the Spreading Doctrine oi Absolute 
Necessity. In some Remarks on the Rev. Mr. Toplady' s ' Scheme of 
Philosophical Necessity.' " 

To understand this, it must be stated, that, in 1774, 
Wesley published a 12 mo pamphlet of 33 pages, entitled, 
" Thoughts upon Necessity." This was one of Wesley's 
ablest publications, and, to use Wesley's own words, in his 
address " to the Reader," it was meant to rebut the teaching 
of an "Essay on Liberty and Necessity,"" 1 which he had 
lately read. " I would fain," says he, " place mankind in a 
fairer point of view than that writer" (the author) "has done: 
as I cannot believe the noblest creature in the visible world 
to be only a fine piece of clock-work." Toplady was not 
once mentioned in Wesley's tract ; but he immediately set 
to work to answer it, and, in the following year, his strange 
production was issued with the following title: "The Scheme 
of Christian and Philosophical Necessity Asserted. In Oppo- 
sition to Mr. John Wesley's Tract on that Subject. With a 
Dissertation concerning the Sensible Qualitys of Matter : 
and the Doctrine of Color in particular. By Augustus 
Toplady, Vicar of Broad Hembury. London, 1775." 8vo, 
216 pp. 

Wesley, as already stated, had not even named Toplady 
in his publication, much less abused him ; but the opportunity 
of again reviling Wesley was too tempting to be neglected. 
In his preface, he gives an extract from a letter, written by 
a London clergyman, who had sent him Wesley's tract : — ■ 

" I went last night to the Foundery, expecting to hear Vo-pe John j 
but was disappointed. After hearing a Welshman, 2 for an hour and 
twenty tnirmtes. oj^ Jsalm lxx xiv. 11., preach up all the heresies {sic) of 
the place, a man, who sat in the pulpit, told him to • Give over for 
he seemed to bid fair for another half hour, at least. But he came to 
a conclusion, as desired. Then this man, who seemed to be a local 



1 This Essay had been published, in Edinburgh, some years before. 

2 Query ? Thomas Olivers, corrector of the press for Wesley. 



34-0 Wesley^ s Designated Successor. [1776. 



preacher, 1 stood up with a pamphlet in his hand, and addressed the 
auditory in the following manner : — 

" ' I am desired to publish a pamphlet upon Necessity and Free- Will, 
— the best 1 know of in the English tongue, — by Mr. J-ohn Wesley, 
price threepence. I had purposed to say a good deal upon it ; but the 
time is elapsed. But, in this threepenny pamphlet, you have all the 
disputes that have been bandy' d about so lately ; and you will get your 
minds more established by this threepenny pamphlet, than by reading 
all the books that have been written for and against. It is to be had 
at both doors, as you go out.' " 

It is not unlikely that this narration is true ; for, in those 
days, Methodist preachers preached long sermons, and, from 
the pulpit, recommended the people to purchase Methodist 
publications. Toplady takes occasion to call the occurrence 
" a droll sort of mountebank scene," and pretends to bewail 
" the unreasonable and unseasonable prolixity of the long- 
winded holder-forth, which cruelly, injudiciously, and despite- 
fully prevented poor Zany from puffing off, with the amplitude 
he intended, the multiplex virtues of the doctor's threepenny 
free-will powder." He continues : — 

" 'Never do that by delegation,' says an old proverb, ' which you 
can as well do in propria persona. Had Doctor John himself got 
upon the stage, and sung — 

" i Come, buy my fine powders ; come buy dem of me ; 
Hare be de best powders dat ever you see : ' 

who knows, but the threepenny doses might have gone off 'at both 
doors,' as rapidly as peas from a pop-gun ?" 

Toplady, in a bantering tone, proceeds to give the "chief 
ingredients of the famous Moorfields powder" namely : — 

"An equal portion of gross Heathenis7n, Maho?netism, Popery y 
Manichaeism, Ranter ism, and Anti?iomianis7n ; cull'd, dry'd, andpul- 
veriz'd, secunde?n artem: and, above all, mingled with as much palpable 
Atheism as you can possibly scrape together from every quarter." 
(Preface.) 

In Chapter I., Toplady continues this unworthy, dishonour- 
able abuse. He writes : — 

" Aliquis in omnibus, nullus in singulis. The man, who concerns 
himself in everything, bids fair not to make a figure in anything. Mr. 



1 Query ? John Atlay, the book-steward. 



Age 46.] Toplady again Attacks Wesley, 



341 



John Wesley is, precisely, this aliquis in o?nnibus ; for, is there a single 
subject in which he has not endeavoured to shine ? He is also, as 
precisely, a nullus in singulis ; for, has he shone in any one subject 
which he ever attempted to handle ? Upon what principle can these 
two circumstances be accounted for ? Only upon that very principle, at 
which he so dolefully shakes his head, viz., the principle of necessity. 
The poor gentleman is, necessarily, an universal meddler ; and, as 
necessarily, an universal miscarryer. Can he avoid being either the 
one or the other ? No." (p. 10.) 

In a subsequent page, Toplady asserts : — 

"Mr. Wesley, in one respect, is as much, and, in another respect, 
abundantly more a. Manichae, than either Scythian, Budda, or Manes. 
By a very singular mixture of Manichaeism, Pelagianism, Poftery, 
Socinianism, Ranterism, and Atheism, he has, I believe, now got to 
his ultimatum. Probably, he would go still further, if he could. But, 
I really think, he has no farther to go. Happy settlement, after forty 
years' infinity of shiftings and flittings hither and thither ! 

Thus weathercocks, which, for awhile, 
Have turn'd about with every blast, — 
Grown old, and destitute of oil, 
Rust to a point, and fix at last ! ' " (p. 131.) 

Again, on page 168, Toplady's reader is told that — 

" Mr. Wesley is the lamest, the blindest, and the most self-contra- 
dictory waster of ink and paper, that ever pretended to the name of 
reasoner. 'Tis almost a disgrace to refute him." 

Again, on p. 172, Toplady writes : — 

"Mr. Wesley's heat and prophaneness are such, that he dares to scold 
his Maker with as little ceremony, and with as much scurrility, as an 
enraged fish-woman would be-din the ears of a 'prentice wench." 

Was Toplady a Christian ? It is difficult to answer that 
question. A more monstrous combination of opposing quali- 
ties has seldom figured on the stage of human life. He was 
now thirty-four years of age. 1 Three years and a-half later 
he was dead. 

It is needless to furnish an outline of Toplady's bold book. 
What he attempted to expound and prove will be found in 
the following extracts : — 



1 Wesley was more than seventy ! 



342 



Wesley 9 s Designated Successor. [1776. 



" I own myself very fond of definitions : I therefore praemise 1 what 
the necessity is, whose cause I have undertaken to plead. I would 
define necessity to be that, by which, whatever comes to J>ass cannot 
but come to J>ass (all circumstances taken into the account); and can 
come to £ass in no other way or manner than it does" (p. 12). 

Again, on page 15 7, he writes : — 

" For my own part, I solemnly profess, before God, angels, and men, 
that I am not conscious of my being endued with that self-determining 
power, which Arminianism ascribes to me as an individual of the human 
species. Nay, I am clearly certain that I have it not. I am also 
equally certain that I do ?iot wish to have it ; and that, were it possible 
for my Creator to make me an offer of transferring the determination of 
any one event, from His own will to mine, it would be both my duty and 
my wisdom to entreat that the sceptre might still remain with Himself, 
and that I might have nothing to do in the direction of a single incident, 
or of so much as a single circumstance." 

The principles wrapped up in the definition and the con- 
fession of Toplady are what he tries to vindicate ; and to 
refute them was the task Fletcher undertook. Fletcher's 
pamphlet was published in 1777, with the following title: 
" A Reply to the Principal Arguments by which the Cal- 
vinists and Fatalists support the Doctrine of Absolute 
Necessity : being Remarks on the Rev. Mr. Toplady's 
' Scheme of Christian and Philosophical Necessity.' By 
John Fletcher, Vicar of Madeley, Salop. London, 1777." 
I 2 mo, 80 pp. 

Fletcher, with his talent of quiet cutting irony, might 
have rebuked the slang of Toplady ; but, like a Christian 
and a gentleman, he, with indignant silence, allows it to 
pass unnoticed. The task of vanquishing Toplady was not 
difficult, for seldom has a more absurd theological work than 
"The Scheme of Christian and Philosophical Necessity" been 
committed to the press. Fletcher's " reply " was perfectly 
unanswerable : poor Toplady was silenced. 

It would tire the reader to analyse Fletcher's work ; and 
two extracts from it must suffice, the first showing with 
what ease Fletcher dealt with the absurdities of Toplady's 



1 In this, and in all the foregoing extracts, the spelling of words is 
literally given. — L. T. 



Age 46.] Fletcher again Answers Toplady. 



343 



philosophy ; and the second exhibiting his desire to live in 
peace and love with even the rabid Calvinists. 

In Chapter III. of his book, Toplady wrote as follows : — 

"It seems most agreeable to the radical simplicity, which God has 
observed in all His works, to suppose, that, in themselves, all human 
souls are equal. I can easily believe, that the soul of an oyster-woman 
has, naturally, the unexpanded powers of Grotius, or of Sir Isaac 
Newton ; and that what conduces to raise the philosopher, the poet, 
the politician, or the linguist, so much above the ignorant and stupid 
of mankind, is, not only the circumstance of intellectual cultivation, 
but, still more than that, his having the happiness to occupy a better 
house, i.e. a body more commodiously organized than they. The soul 
of a Monthly Reviewer, if imprisoned within the same mud walls which 
are tenanted by the soul of Mr. John Wesley, would, similarly circum- 
stanced, reason and act, I verily think, exactly like the Bishop of Moor- 
fields. And I know some very sensible people, who even go so far as to 
suppose, that, were a human soul shut up in the skull of a cat, puss 
would, notwithstanding, more prone on all fours, purr when stroked, 
spit when pinched, and birds and mice would be her darling objects of 
pursuit. Though I cannot carry matters to so extreme a length as this, 
yet, I repeat my opinion, very much depends on corporeal organization. 

" I just now hinted the conjecture of some that a human spirit, incar- 
cerated in the brain of a cat, would, probably, both think and behave as 
that animal now does. But how would the soul of a cat acquit itself, if 
enclosed in the brain of a man ? We cannot resolve this question with 
certainty, any more than the other. We may, however, even on this 
occasion, address every one of our human brethren in the words of that 
great philosophic necessitarian, St. Paul, and ask, Who maketh thee 
to differ from the lowest of the brute creation ? Thy Maker 's free will, 
not thine. And what pre-eminence hast thou, which thou didst not 
receive from Him ? Not the least, nor the shadow of any." 

"Admirable divinity !" wrote Fletcher. " So Mr. Toplady leaves the 
orthodox in doubt, — j. Whether, when their souls and the souls of cats 
shall be let out of their respective brains or prisons, the souls of cats 
will not be equal to the souls of men. 2. Whether, supposing the soul 
of a cat had been put in the brain of St. Paul, or of a Monthly Re- 
viewer, the soul of puss would not have made as great an Apostle as 
the soul of Saul of Tarsus ; as good a critic as the soul of the most 
sensible Reviewer. And, 3. Whether, in case the 'human spirit' of 
Isaiah ' was shut up in the skull of a cat, puss would not, notwithstand- 
ing, move prone on all fours, purr when stroked, spit when pinched, and 
birds and mice be her darling objects of pursuit.' Is not this a pretty 
large stride, for the first, towards the doctrine of the sameness of the 
souls of men with the souls of cats and frogs ? Wretched Calvinism, 
new-fangled doctrines of grace, where are you leading your deluded 
admirers, your principal vindicators ? Is it not enough, that you have 



344 



Wesley* s Designated Successor, 



Er77& 



spoiled the fountain of living waters, by turning into it the muddy 
streams of Zend 's errors ? Are ye also going to poison it by the ab- 
surdities of Pythagoras' 's philosophy ? What a side-stroke is here inad- 
vertently given to these capital doctrines, ' God breathed into ' Adam 
' the breath of life, and he became a living soul ; ' a soul made ' in the 
image of God,' and not in the image of a cat ! ' The spirit of the beast 
goeth downward to the earth ; but the spirit of man goeth upward ; it 
returns to God who gave it,' with an intention to judge and reward it 
according to its moral works. 

"But I must do Mr. Toplady justice; he does not yet recommend 
this doctrine as absolutely certain. However, from his capital doctrine, 
that human souls have no free-will, no inward principle of self-deter- 
mination ; and from his avowed opinion, that the soul of one man, 
placed in the body of another man, 'would, similarly circumstanced, 
reason and act exactly like ' the man in whose mud walls it is lodged ; 
it evidently follows, i. That, had the human soul of Christ been placed 
in the body and circumstances of Nero, it would have been exactly as 
wicked and atrocious as the soul of that bloody monster was. And 2. 
That if Nero's soul had been placed in Christ's body, and in His faying 
circumstances, it would have been exactly as virtuous and immaculate 
as that of the Redeemer; the consequence is undeniable. Thus, the 
i merit of the man Christ did not, in the least, spring from His righteous 
soul, but from His ' mud walls ' and from the happiness which His soul 
had of being lodged in a 'brain peculiarly modified' Nor did the 
demerit of Nero flow from his free agency and self-perversion, but only 
from his ' mud walls,' and from the infelicity which his necessitated 
soul had of being lodged in ' an ill-constructed vehicle,'" and placed on 
that throne on which Titus soon after deserved to be called ' the darling 
of mankind.' See, O ye engrossers of orthodoxy, to what absurd lengths 
your aversion to the liberty of the will, and to evangelical worthiness, 
leads your unwary souls ! And yet, if we believe Mr. Toplady, your 
scheme, which is big with these inevitable consequences, is ' Christian 
philosophy,' and our doctrine of free will is ' philosophy run mad,' p. 30." 

Did cat ever play with mouse more perfectly and amus- 
ingly than did the Vicar of Madeley with the Vicar of 
Broad Hembury ? 

The next extract, which is the conclusion of Fletcher's 
triumphant " Reply " to Toplady, shows his intense desire to 
live in love and peace with his opponents : — 

"Mr. Wesley and I are ready to testify upon oath, that we humbly 
submit to God's sovereignty, and j oyfully glory in the freeness of Gospel 
grace, wdiich has mercifully distinguished us from countless myriads of 
our fellow-creatures, by gratuitously bestowing upon us numberless 
favours, of a spiritual and temporal nature, w r hich he has thought proper 
absolutely to withhold from our fellow-creatures. To meet the Cal- 
vinists on their own ground, we go so far as to allow there is a partial, 



Age 46.] 



Fletcher again Answers Toplady. 



345 



gratuitous election and reprobation. By this election, Christians are 
admitted to the enjoyment of privileges far superior to those of the 
Jews ; and, according to this reprobation, myriads of heathen are abso- 
lutely cut off from all the prerogatives which accompany God's covenants 
of peculiar grace. In a word, we grant to the Calvinists everything 
they contend for, except the doctrine of absolute necessity; nay, we 
even grant the necessary, unavoidable salvation of all that die in their 
infancy. And our love of peace would make us go farther to meet 
Mr. Toplady, if we could do it without giving up the justice, mercy, 
truth, and wisdom of God, together with the truth of the Scriptures, the 
equity of God's paradisaical and mediatorial laws, the propriety of the 
day of judgment, and the reasonableness of the sentences of absolution 
and condemnation, which the Righteous Judge will then pronounce. 
We hope, therefore, that the prejudices of our Calvinian brethren will 
subside ; and that, instead of accounting us inveterate enemies to 
truth, they will do us the justice to say, that we have done our best to 
hinder them from inadvertently betraying some of the greatest truths of 
Christianity into the hands of the Manichees, Materialists, Infidels, and -, 
Antinomians of the age. May the Lord hasten the happy day in which \ 
we shall no more waste our precious time in attacking or defending the \ 
truths of our holy religion ; but bestow every moment in the sweet j 
V^exercises of Divine and brotherly love ! " 

During the last six years, Fletcher had most laboriously 
devoted the whole of the time he could conscientiously spare 
from the faithful discharge of his parochial duties, to an 
earnest and elaborate explanation and defence of the Anti- 
Calvinian doctrines, formally announced by his friend Wesley, 
at the Conference of 1770. Wesley was without leisure for 
this. If he had attempted it, he would have been obliged 
to content himself with the publication of brief, sententious 
tracts ; and this would have been insufficient. Most of the 
Methodist clergymen of the day, including Whitefield, Her- 
f vey, Romaine, Berridge, Shirley, Toplady, and many others, J: 
had become sincere and laborious Calvinists. Their pub- 
lications were widely spread, and their views extensively 
embraced. Wesley saw and felt that an antidote was needed ; 
and especially as the Countess of Huntingdon had recently 
opened her college at Trevecca to multiply the number of 
such ministers. Hence, the declaration of his " Minutes," 
and hence, the fierce controversial war that immediately 
followed. Fletcher had been educated at Geneva, where 
Calvin had propounded his creed, and his form of Church 
government. Fletcher was not, professedly, a theological 



346 



Wesley* s Designated Successor. [1776. 



student at Geneva ; but he was a regular attendant at Divine 
services, as well as a diligent reader of the Holy Scriptures, 
and there can be no doubt that he was, to a considerable 
extent, even in his youth, acquainted with the Calvinian 
theology. At all events, when the controversy commenced, 
in 1770, there was no one, among Wesley's helpers, so 
competent to enter the arena, on his behalf, as his friend 
Fletcher. Hitherto, Fletcher had been accustomed to make 
little evangelistic tours, to London, to Wales, and to other 
places ; but now, for six years, he confined himself within 
his own parish, that he might have time to defend Wesley. 
Up to the present, his letters to his friends had been some- 
what numerous ; now, to write a letter was one of his rare 
exercises. He was committed to a great work ; and every- 
thing, excepting the pastoral duties of his parish, must give 
way to it. Of the style of his writings, the reader has had 
numerous specimens. It is always perspicuous, lively, chaste, 
though occasionally prolix. Many of his figures are apt, 
striking, convincing ; but others would have been more im- 
pressive had they been less elaborate. His arguments are 
fair, legitimate, and generally unanswerable. His spirit, with- 
out exception, is saintly. He never becomes personal ; never 
deals in invective ; never assails character ; never impugns 
motives. Among the Wesleyan Methodists, he settled for 
ever all the questions of the Calvinian controversy. For 
many a long year, Methodist preachers — itinerant and local 
— drew their arguments and illustrations from his invaluable 
"Checks ;" and, perhaps, it is not too much to say, that not 
a few of the Calvinists themselves were led by his immortal 
productions to explain, and modify, and, to some extent, to 
change their unwarrantable doctrines. To his memory, the 
Methodist Churches owe undying veneration ; for he did for 
Wesley's theology what no other man than himself, at that 
period, could have done. John Wesley travelled, formed 
Societies, and governed them. Charles Wesley composed 
unequalled hymns for the Methodists to sing ; and John 
Fletcher, a native of Calvinian Switzerland, explained, ela- 
borated, and defended the doctrines they heartily believed. 

Hitherto, his opponents had been Walter Shirley, Richard 
Hill and his brother Rowland, honest Berridge, and clever 



Age 46.] 



Rev. Caleb Evans. 



347 



but censorious Toplady. The last, for invective, was the 
worst. Twenty years before, he had heard James Morris, 
one of Wesley's itinerants, preach in a barn at Codymain, 
and soon afterwards was converted. Two years later, while 
a student in Trinity College, Dublin, he wrote an admirable 
letter to Wesley, thanking him for his " kind " cautions and 
advices. When and why he became the bitter foe of Wesley 
it is difficult to determine. He died on August 11, 1778, 
in the thirty-eighth year of his age, and was buried in a grave, 
thirteen feet deep, under the gallery of Whitefield's chapel, 
in Tottenham Court Road. 

Fletcher's next antagonist was the Rev. Caleb Evans, a 
Baptist minister at Bristol ; a man of good sense, a diligent 
student, a faithful pastor, and now thirty-seven years of age. 
At this period, the English colonists in America were in 
rebellion. On May 10, 1775, a Congress of the thirteen 
States met at Philadelphia, and appointed George Washington 
as their Commander-in-Chief. He took command of the 
army before Boston, where the English had ten thousand 
men. A few days after his arrival, the terrible battle at 
Bunker's Hill was fought ; and a bloody war soon spread 
over the whole seaboard, and even into Canada, where the 
American colonists besieged Quebec. In the year 1775, 
Wesley abridged Dr. Johnson's famous pamphlet, entitled, 
" Taxation no Tyranny," and published it as his own, 
without the least reference as to its origin. Mr. Evans 
warmly sympathized with the colonists, and published " A 
Letter to the Rev. John Wesley, occasioned by his ' Calm 
Address.' " Wesley's reply to this was the republication of 
his pirated pamphlet, with a preface prefixed, in which he 
said, " All the arguments " [of Evans] " might be contained 
in a nutshell." Political as well as theological controversy 
is always irritating. Angry tracts and pamphlets, almost 
without number, were committed to the press ; but all of 
them, except those in which Fletcher was concerned, must 
here be passed in silence. Fletcher now, strangely enough, 
turned politician. Early in the year 1776, he published the 
following : " A Vindication of the Rev. Mr. Wesley's ' Calm 
Address to our American Colonists:' In some Letters to 
Mr. Caleb Evans : By John Fletcher, Vicar of Madeley, 



348 Wesley* 's Designated Successor. [1776. 



Salop. London : Printed and sold at the Foundery." 
i2mo, 70 pp. 1 

In a letter to Joseph Benson, he said : — 

" I have unaccountably launched into Christian politics ; a branch of 
divinity too much neglected by some and too much attended to by others. 
If you have seen my ' Vindication of Mr. Wesley's Calm Address,' and 
can make sense of that badly printed piece, I shall be thankful for your 
very dispraise." 

To James Ireland, Esq., he wrote on February 3, 1776 : — 

"My little political piece is published in London. You thank me for 
it beforehand ; I believe they are the only thanks I shall have. It is 
well you sent them before you read the book ; and yet, whatever con- 
tempt it brings upon me, I still think I have written the truth. If I have 
been wrong in writing, I hope I shall not be so excessively wrong as 
not to be thankful for any reproof candidly levelled at what I have 
written. I prepare myself to be like my Lord in my little measure ; I 
mean, to be ' Despised and rejected of men ; a ma.7i of sorrows, and 
acquainted with griefs? — most reviled for what I mean best." 

Evidence will soon be adduced that Fletcher's apprehensions 
of coming reproach were realized. 

It may fairly be doubted whether Wesley and Fletcher 
acted wisely in rushing into the fierce political strife that 
then existed. Their motives were pure ; and, perhaps, Mr. 
Benson, living at the time, and a competent observer of men 
and things, was correct when he said, — 

" Mr. Fletcher's publications upon the question which divided Great 
Britain and her Colonies, as well as Mr. Wesley's 'Calm Address,' 
certainly were of great use ; not indeed to prevent the continuation and 
further progress of the war, and stop the effusion of blood abroad, but 
to allay the spirits of disloyalty and insurrection which were beginning 
to show themselves at home." 

Still, it must be admitted, that the high and holy vocation of 
Wesley and Fletcher was not to rebuke and correct political 
errors, but to revive, spread, and defend the great Gospel 
truths which had been so long neglected and forgotten. 

No useful end would be answered by giving an outline 
of Fletcher's arguments in his "Vindication of Wesley's 'Calm 



1 In the same year, another edition was published in "Dublin: Printed 
for W. Whitestone, No. 33, Skinner Row." 



Age 46.] 



Mr. Evans a?iswers Fletcher. 



349 



Address.'" Many of them may be more easily sneered at 
than answered. They show the versatility of Fletcher's 
genius ; and, remembering the fewness of the newspapers 
then published, they create surprise at the extent of Fletcher's 
political information. He often uses strong language, but 
he is never ungentlemanly or abusive. He was loyal to the 
throne and government of England, but he was not a blind 
opponent of civil liberty, or that exemption from the arbitrary 
will of others which is secured by equitable and established 
laws. In concluding his first letter to Mr. Evans he wrote: — 

" I declare that I am as much in love with liberty as with loyalty ; 
and that I write a heartfelt truth when I subscribe myself, Rev. Sir, 
your affectionate fellow-labourer in the Gospel, a republican by birth and 
education, and a subject of Great Britain by love of liberty and free 
choice." 

As soon as Fletcher's pamphlet appeared, Mr. Evans 
hastened to answer it, and employed Wesley's old friend, 
William Pine, of Bristol, as his printer and publisher. The 
title of his new production was " A Reply to the Rev. Mr. 
Fletcher's 'Vindication' of Mr. Wesley's 'Calm Address to our 
American Colonists.' By Caleb Evans, M.A." 12 mo, 103 pp. 

Mr. Evans's reply was full of bad temper. The first 
twenty-three pages were devoted to abusive remarks on the 
change which had taken place in Wesley's political opinions, 
and to a mistake which Wesley honestly confessed he had 
made in denying that he had seen a book on "the exclusive 
right of the Colonies to tax themselves." He acknowledges 
that he had seen the book, but adds : " I had so entirely 
forgotten it, that even when I saw it again I recollected 
nothing of it till I had read several pages." Mr. Evans, in 
an angry spirit, uses this lapse of memory to the utmost in 
an endeavour to brand Wesley as a liar, and concludes his 
first letter to Fletcher thus : — 

" Having thus given you, Sir, a faithful narrative of the rise, progress, 
and conclusion of the dispute betwixt me and Mr. Wesley, you are 
welcome to re-enter on the vindication of your friend, as you style him, 
as soon as you please. And should you find yourself unequal to the 
Herculean task, you may call in the assistance of the amazing Mr. 
Tho?nas Olivers, that mirror of Christian meekness and modesty, and 



350 Wesley's Designated Successor, [1776. 



with his logic and your oratory, aided by scraps of mutilated letters, 
you will perform wonders." 

Mr. Evans begins his second letter by politely telling 
Fletcher that in reading his "Vindication of Wesley's 'Calm 
Address'" he had been greatly disappointed. 

" For," says he, " instead of argument, I met with nothing but decla- 
mation ; instead of precision, artful colouring ; instead of proof, pre- 
sumption ; instead of consistency, contradiction ; instead of reasoning, 
a string of sophistries. Your letters abound, Sir, as every intelligent 
reader will easily discover, with the petitio principii, the fallacia acci- 
dentis, the non causa pro causa, and those many other pretty inven- 
tions by which, as the Schoolmen very well know, a question may be 
embarrassed when it cannot be answered." 

In succeeding pages, Mr. Evans charges Fletcher with 
using "loose, inconsistent, vague declamation;" and adds: — 

"This may confound the ignorant and superficial; but you cannot 
yourself suppose it ever can convince the intelligent and impartial. 
Your chief aim seems to be spargere voces in vulgam ambiguas, and 
thereby artfully to persuade them that all those who are enemies to the 
measures of the ministry respecting America are Republicans, king- 
haters, Calvinists, Anabaptists, Antinomians, and everything that 
is bad." 

Poor Fletcher ! He was indeed realizing the reproach 
he had apprehended ; and yet he was not satisfied. Hence his 
publication of the following: "American Patriotism: Farther 
confronted with Reason, Scripture, and the Constitution : 
Being Observations on the Dangerous Politicks taught by the 
Rev. Mr. Evans, M.A., and the Rev. Dr. Price. 1 With a 
Scriptural Plea for the Revolted Colonies. By J. Fletcher, 
Vicar of Madeley." 1776. 12 mo, 138 pp. 

" The author," writes Fletcher in his preface, " dares not flatter him- 
self to have the knowledge of logic and divinity, which are requisite to 
do his subject the justice it deserves ; but, having for some years opposed 
false orthodoxy, he may have acquired a little skill to oppose false 
pa triotism ; and, having defended evangelical obedience to God against 
the indirect attacks of some ministers of the Church of England, he 
humbly hopes that he may step forth a second time and defend consti- 



1 Mr. Evans, in his " Reply," had made several quotations from what 
he calls "Dr. Price's most excellent pamphlet, just published," and 
entitled , " Observations on the Nature of Civil Liberty." 



Age 47-] " The Bible and the Sword" 



351 



tutional obedience to the king against some ministers who dissent from 
the Established Church. Those whom he encounters in these sheets are 
the leading ecclesiastical patriots of the two greatest cities in the king- 
dom ; Mr. Evans being the champion of the minority in Bristol, as Dr. 
Price is in London." 

Of course, Fletcher's book is able ; but, excepting so far as 
it teaches that loyalty is a Christian duty, it is, to a great 
extent, out of date. 

On October 30, 1776, a royal proclamation was issued, 
ordering " a public fast and humiliation to be observed 
throughout England and the kingdom of Ireland, upon 
Friday the 13th of December next, for the purpose of 
imploring the Almighty speedily to deliver the King's loyal 
subjects within his colonies and provinces in North America, 
from the violence, injustice, and tyranny of those daring 
rebels who had assumed to themselves the exercise of arbi- 
trary power ; to open the eyes of those who had been 
deluded, by specious falsehoods, into acts of treason and 
rebellion ; to turn the hearts of the authors of these 
calamities ; and to restore his people in those distracted 
provinces and colonies to the happy condition of being free 
subjects in a free state, under which heretofore they had 
flourished so long, and prospered so much." 1 

This had Fletcher's hearty approbation, and he at once 
wrote and published a 12 mo pamphlet of 22 pages, dated 
"London, December 6, 1776," with the title, "The Bible 
and the Sword ; or, The Appointment of the General Fast 
Vindicated : In an Address to the Common People, con- 
cerning the Propriety of Repressing obstinate Licentiousness 
with the Sword, and of Fasting when the Sword is drawn 
for that Purpose. London : Printed by R. Hawes, and sold 
at the Foundery, in Moorfields, and at the Rev. Mr. Wesley's 
Preaching Houses in Town and Country. 1776." 2 One 
half of this pamphlet, however, was simply a reprint of 
extracts from his "American Patriotism;" the other half is 



1 Annual Register, 1776. 

2 Almost without exception, all Fletcher's publications had on their 
title-pages the advertisement, "Sold at the Foundery, in Moorfields, 
and at the Rev. Mr. Wesley's preaching-houses in town and country." 



35 2 Wesley s Designated Successor. [1776. 



devoted to the task of proving, from Scripture, that, under 
certain circumstances, war is lawful. 

As he expected, Fletcher, by his political publications, 
brought upon himself political wrath and censure, of which 
the following extracts, taken from the Monthly Review, are 
specimens : — - 

"Mr. Fletcher has been distinguished in the late theological con- 
troversies between Mr. Wesley and his. followers, on the one part, and 
the Antinomians, or Calvinists, on the other. In these disputes, the 
Shropshire vicar made no inconsiderable figure ; and we have freely 
and impartially done justice to his abilities. In politics, however, we 
have nothing to say in his favour. We are, indeed, sorry to observe 
that he is a mere Sacheverell ; a preacher of those slavish and justly 
exploded Jacobitical doctrines, for which the memory of Sacheverell 
and his abettors will ever be held in equal contempt and abhorrence by 
every true friend to the liberties of mankind." 1 

" Mr. Fletcher's present performance " {Ai?ierican Patriotis?n) " is, 
like his former piece on this subject, wordy, specious, and artful. He 
alternately attacks the champions on the other side of the question, 
Dr. Price and Mr. Evans ; and he evidently thinks himself a match 
for them both. We are almost tired of the fruitless contest; but one 
word with Mr. Fletcher before we part. He is a little chagrined at our 
styling him a mere Sacheverell ; and he takes pains, in this publi- 
cation, to show his equal abhorrence of regal or of mobbish tyranny. 
We are glad to find this rev. gentleman thus disclaiming those 
principles to which many of his positions and arguments obviously 
lead ; and we charitably hope that he was not aware of the full extent 
and tendency of their operation. Mr. Fletcher is, by all report, a good 
man ; but he will never, we suspect, obtain a good report merely for 
his politics, except with those who have already embraced the same 
system ; for mankind are too much guided by Swift's rule of pronouncing 
those right who think as we do, and every one wrong who differs from 
us. Poor encouragement, by the way, for our author to expend his ink, 
and wear out his pens, in order to convert those political heretics, the 
advocates for America." 2 

The sneers of the Monthly Reviewers were unjust. Fletcher, 
in reply to their unmerited taunt, remarked : — 

" I am no more ' a mere SacheverelT than I am a mere Price. Dr. 
Sacheverell ran as fiercely into the high monarchical extreme as Dr. 
Price does into the high republican extreme. I have endeavoured to 
keep at an equal distance from their opposite mistakes, by contending 
only for the just medium, which the Holy Scriptures and our excellent 



1 Monthly Review, 1776, vol. liv., p. 325. 

2 Ibid, 1776, vol. lv, p. 155. 



Age 46.] The Government Desires to Reward Fletcher. 353 



constitution point out. If Dr. Sacheverell were alive, and his erroneous, 
enthusiastical, mobbing politics endangered the public tranquillity, as 
the patriotism of Mr. Evans and Dr. Price does at present, I would 
oppose the high churchman as much as I now do the two high 
diss enters.'" 1 

Notwithstanding the depreciatory opinions of Mr. Evans, 
Dr. Price, and the Monthly Reviewers, the government of 
King George III. desired to reward Fletcher for the service he 
had rendered them. His old friend, Mr. Vaughan, informed 
Wesley that he took one of Fletcher's political pamphlets to 
the Earl of Dartmouth, at that time Secretary of State for 
the Colonies. Lord Dartmouth carried it to the Lord Chan- 
cellor, who handed it to King George. The result was 
an official was immediately commissioned to ask Fletcher 
whether any preferment in the Church would be acceptable 
to him ? or whether the Lord Chancellor could do him any 
service ? Fletcher replied, no doubt to the amazement of all 
concerned, " I want nothing, but more grace." 2 

This was characteristic of the man. " The love of money, 
the root of all evil," was a sin from which Fletcher was 
entirely exempt. 

"On the 10th of May, 1774," says Mr. Vaughan, "Mr. Fletcher 
wrote me thus : ' My brother has sent me the rent of the little place 
I have abroad, ^80, which I was to receive from Mr. Chauvet and Co., 
in London. But, instead of sending the draught for the money, I have 
sent it back to Switzerland, with orders to distribute it among the poor. 
As money is rather higher there than here, that mite will go farther 
abroad than it would in my parish.' " 3 

Mr. Vaughan continues : — 

" In 1776, he deposited with me a bill of ^105, being, as I understood 
the yearly produce of his estate in Switzerland. This was his fund for 
charitable uses ; but it lasted only a few months, when he drew upon 
me for the balance, which was ^24, to complete the preaching-house in 
Madeley Wood." 4 

Men, said Cicero, resemble the gods in nothing so much 
as in doing good to their fellow-creatures. 



1 "American Patriotism," p. 130. 

2 Wesley's " Life of Fletcher." 

3 Ibid. 

4 Ibid. 



23 



354 



Wesley s Designated Successor. 



[1776. 



CHAPTER XIX. 
CORRESPONDENCE IN 1776. 




LETCHER'S health was failing ; and no wonder. 
Wesley writes : — 



" He was more and more abundant in his ministerial labours, both in 
public and private ; not contenting himself with preaching, but visiting 
his flock in every corner of his parish. And this work he attended to 
early and late, whether the weather was fair or foul ; regarding neither 
heat nor cold, rain nor snow, whether he was on horseback or on foot. 
But this further weakened his constitution ; which was still more 
effectually done by his intense and uninterrupted studies, in which he 
frequently continued, without scarce any intermission, fourteen, fifteen, 
or sixteen hours a day. But still he did not allow himself such food as 
was necessary to sustain nature. He seldom took any regular meals 
except he had company ; otherwise, twice or thrice in four-and-twenty 
hours he ate some bread and cheese, or fruit. Instead of this, he some- 
times took a draught of milk, and then wrote on again. When one 
reproved him for not affording himself a sufficiency of necessary food, 
he replied, ' Not allow myself food ! Why our food seldom costs my 
housekeeper and me less than two shillings a week." 1 

During the Calvinian controversy, Fletcher's letters to his 
friends seem to have been comparatively few. At all events, 
few have been preserved. Now he resumed his epistolary 
correspondence ; and the present chapter will mainly consist 
of these outpourings of his heart to those whom he dearly 
loved. 

In a letter, dated January 9, 1776, and published in the 
" Life and Times of Wesley," Fletcher refers to a renewed 
proposal to become Wesley's successor. To prepare him for 
this, Wesley requested that he would accompany him in his 
evangelistic tours, so that he might be commended to the 
Methodist Societies they visited. Fletcher replied that he 



1 Wesley's "Life of Fletcher." 



Age 4 6.] Fletcher again objects to become Wesley's Successor. 355 



was willing to accompany Wesley as a travelling assistant ; 
but he strongly objected to being nominated Wesley's 
successor. Besides other reasons, which he adduced, he re- 
marked, that such a nomination would lead people to suspect, 
and say, that what he had written, "for truth and conscience' 
sake," in defence of Wesley's doctrines, had all been done 
for the purpose of becoming, what Toplady had called, " the 
Bishop of Moorfields." There is no need to quote this letter 
at full length ; but it is an important one, as showing that 
the proposal which Wesley had made to Fletcher, three 
years before, was not a passing whim, but a fixed idea, on 
the realization of which he had set his heart. 1 

It may be added, that Fletcher, in the same letter, informs 
Wesley, that, by the last post, he had sent him a manuscript, 
entitled, "A Second Check to Civil Antinomianism ;" being 
an extract from the Church of England Homily on Rebellion ; 
and he expresses the opinion that it might be well to print 
and circulate it, not only for the general good, but, also, " to 
shame Mr. Roquet," one of the first masters of Wesley's school, 
at Kingswood, but now a clergyman of the Church of England, 
who, in the controversy respecting the American rebellion, 
had turned against his old friend Wesley, and had rendered 
assistance to Wesley's dissenting opponent, Caleb Evans. 
Wesley seems to have had more regard for Mr. Roquet's 
reputation, than even gentle-minded Fletcher had, for 
Fletcher's manuscript was not published. 

Fletcher refused to be commended as Wesley's successor ; 
but he evidently thought of travelling. Hence, in a letter 
to his friend James Ireland, Esq., he wrote : — 

" Madeley, February 3, 1776. Upon the news of your illness, I and 
many more prayed that you might be supported under your pressures, 



1 Others, besides Wesley, had fixed upon Fletcher as Wesley's suc- 
cessor. Joseph Benson, in 1775, shortly after Wesley's dangerous 
illness in Ireland, wrote to him, saying, "In case of Mr. Wesley's death, 
your help would be wanted, in the government of the Societies, and in 
conducting the work of God." To this, Fletcher replied, "God has 
lately shaken Mr. Wesley over the grave ; but, I believe, from the 
strength of his constitution and the weakness of mine, he will survive 
me ; so that I do not scheme about helping to make up the gap, when 
that great tree shall fall. Sufficient for the day will that trouble be ; 
nor will the Divine power be then insufficient to help the people in time 
of need." (Benson's " Life of Fletcher.") 



356 Wesley s Designated Successor. [1776. 



and that they might yield the peaceable fruit of righteousness. We 
shall now turn our prayers into praises for your happy recovery, and for 
the support the Lord has granted you under your trial. There are 
lessons which we can never learn but under the cross : we must suffer 
with Christ if we will be glorified with Him. I hope you will take care 
that it may not be said of you, as it was of Hezekiah, ' He rendered not 
unto the Lord, according to the benefit' of his recovery. May we see 
the propriety and profit of rendering Him our bodies and our souls, — ■ 
the sacrifices of humble, praising, obedient love, — and warm, active, 
cheerful thanksgiving ! 

" A young clergyman offers to assist me : if he does, I may make an 
excursion somewhere this spring ; where it will be, I don't know. It 
maybe into eternity, for I dare not depend upon to-morrow ; but should 
it be your way, I shall inform you of a variety of family trials, which 
the Lord has sent me — all for good, to break my will in every possible 
respect." 1 

In reference to this excursion, Wesley writes : — 

" His health being more than ever impaired by a violent cough, accom- 
panied with spitting of blood, I told him, nothing was so likely to restore 
his health as a long journey. I, therefore, proposed his taking a journey 
of some months with me, through various parts of England and Scotland ; 
telling him, ' When you are tired, or like it best, you may come into my 
carriage ; but, remember, that riding on horseback is the best of all 
exercises for you, so far as your strength will permit.' He looked upon 
this as a call from Providence, and very willingly accepted of the' pro- 
posal. We set out, as I am accustomed to do, early in the spring, and 
travelled by moderate journeys, suited to his strength, eleven or twelve 
hundred miles. 2 When we returned to London, in the latter end of the 
year, he was considerably better; and I verily believe, if he had travelled 
with me, partly in the chaise and partly on horseback, only a few months 
longer, he would have quite recovered his health." 3 

At this period, the end of- 1775, or the beginning of 1776, 
Joseph Benson was stationed in the circuit of Newcastle-on- 
Tyne, and to him Fletcher wrote as follows : — 

"Though I am pretty well in body, I break fast. I have been put 
into such pinching, grinding circumstances for near a year, by a series 
of providential and domestic trials, as have given me some deadly blows. 
Mr. Wesley kindly invited me some weeks ago to travel with him and 
visit some of his Societies. The controversy is partly over, and I feel 
an inclination to break one of my chains, — parochial retirement, — which 
may be a nest for self. A young minister, in deacon's orders, has 



1 Letters, 1791, p. 227. 

2 I cannot trace this journey. — L.T. 
8 Wesley's "Life of Fletcher." 



Age 46.] 



Fletcher Discouraged. 



357 



offered to be my curate ; and, if he can live in this wilderness, I shall 
have some liberty to leave it. I commit the matter entirely to the Lord. 

" The few professors I see in these parts are so far from what I could 
wish them and myself to be, that I cannot but cry out, ' Lord, how long 
wilt Thou give Thine heritage to desolation or barrenness ? How long 
shall the heathen say, where is now their indwelling God ?' I hope it 
is better with you in the north. What are your heart, your pen, your 
tongue doing ? Are they receiving, sealing, spreading the truth every- 
where within your sphere ? Are you dead to praise or dispraise ? Could 
you quietly pass for a mere fool, and have gross nonsense fathered upon 
you without any uneasy reflection of self ? The Lord bless you ! Beware 
of your grand enemy, earthly wisdom, and unbelieving reasonings. You 
will never overcome but by childlike, loving simplicity." 1 

Wesley set out, on his " long journey" from London, on 
Sunday evening,, March 3, 1776, and reached Bristol two 
days afterwards. On Wednesday, March 6, he went to 
Taunton, and " opened the new preaching-house." On 
Thursday, he returned to Bristol ; and, on the Monday fol- 
lowing, started for the north, visiting his Societies at Stroud, 
Painswick, Tewkesbury, Worcester, and other places, until, 
on March 25, he arrived at Birmingham. 2 Mr. Benson says 
Fletcher joined Wesley " at London, or more probably at 
Bristol, and accompanied him on his journeys through 
Gloucestershire, and Worcestershire, and a part of Warwick- 
shire, Staffordshire, and Shropshire. He did not, however, 
proceed further north with Mr. Wesley, at that time, but 
stopped at Madeley, for reasons which he mentioned to me 
in the following letter, written soon after : — 

" ' My Dear Brother, — I would have answered your letter before 
now, had I not been overdone with writing. I have just concluded an 
answer to Mr. Evans and Dr. Price ; a work which I have undertaken 
with a desire to serve the cause of religion, as well as that of loyalty. 
This work has prevented me from following Mr. Wesley. Besides, as 
the clergyman who is here with me (a student from Edmund Hall 3 ), 
has just accepted a place near Manchester, I shall still be without a 
curate. 

" ' I see so little fruit in these parts that I am almost disheartened, 
both with respect to the power of the Word, and the experience of the 



1 Benson's " Life of Fletcher." 

2 Wesley's Journal. 

3 The College, at Oxford, to which the Countess of Huntingdon had 
been accustomed to send godly young men, to prepare them for Orders, 
and from which six of her students had been expelled, in 1768. 



35S 



Wesley s Designated Successor. 



[1776. 



professors I converse with. I am closely followed with the thought that 
the kingdom in the Holy Ghost is almost lost ; and that faith in the 
dispensation of the Spirit is at a very low ebb. But it ma} T be, I think 
so on account of my little experience, and the weakness of the faith of 
those whom I meet. It may be better in all other places. I shall be 
glad to travel a little to see the goodness of the land. God deliver us 
from all extremes, and make and keep us humble, loving, disinterested, 
and zealous ! I preached, before Mr. Greaves came, as much as my 
strength could well admit, although to little purpose ; but I must not 
complain. If one person receive a good desire in ten years, by my 
instrumentality, it is a greater honour than I deserve — an honour for 
which I could not be too thankful. Let us bless the Lord for all things. 
We have reasons innumerable to do it. Bless Him on my account, as 
well as your own ; and the God of peace be with you.' " 1 

Before proceeding further, it may be added, that Joseph 
Benson doubted the propriety of Wesley and Fletcher turning 
their attention to politics. In an unpublished letter, dated 
" Newcastle, May 21, 1776," he wrote : — 

" These are ' perilous times' indeed, and threaten to be more perilous 
still. You see what a famous politician our friend Fletcher is become. 
Though I exceedingly approve both of the ' Calm Address ' and its 
'Vindication,' I fear these subjects only detain the authors from more 
valuable and important work. We expected Mr. Fletcher here along 
with Mr. Wesley ; but I understand, by a letter from him yesterday, 
that he has been prevented, by his having to answer Dr. Price and 
Mr. Evans. And there is more work for him still. A friend of ours, in 
London, has sent Mr. Cownley and me a pamphlet, which, in some 
important points, takes Mr. Fletcher's 'Vindication' thoroughly to 
pieces. I fear he will find it no easy thing to reply to some of its 
arguments. As for Price, his ideas of liberty are beyond measure 
extravagant ; and Mr. Fletcher and Mr. Wesley will find it no very 
difficult matter to reply to him. But, the principal thing to be thought, 
talked, and wrote about, is the bafitis7ii of the Spirit, or the inward 
kingdom of God. Oh ! my friend, this is but little known among us ! " 

To his old friend, Mr. Vaughan, Fletcher wrote : — 

"Madeley, March 21, 1776. 
" Dear Sir, — Your barrel of cider came safe to hand. How could 
you think to make me such a present ? But I must rather thank you 
for your love and generosity, than scold you for your excessive profusion. 
You should have stayed till cider was ten shillings a hogshead, but in 
such a year as this — ! However, the Lord reward you, and return it to 
you, in streams of living water, and plenty of the wine of His kingdom ! 



1 Benson's " Life of Fletcher. 



Age 46.] 



Another Work for the Press. 



359 



" I thought I should soon have done with controversy; but now I 
give up the hope of having done with it before I die. There are three 
sorts of people I must continually attack, or defend myself against — 
Gallios, Pharisees, and Antinomians. I hope I shall die in harness 
fighting against some of them. I do not, however, forget, that the 
Gallio, the Simon, and the Nicholas within, are far more dangerous to 
me than those without. In my own heart, that immense field, I must 
first fight the Lord's battles and my own. Help me here ; join me in 
this field. All Christians are here militia-men, if they are not professed 
soldiers. O, my friend, I need wisdom — meekness of wisdom / A 
heart full of it is better than all your cider vault full of the most generous 
liquors ; and it is in Christ for us. O ! go and ask for you and me ; 
and I shall ask for me and you. May we not be ashamed, nor afraid 
to come, and beg every moment for wine and milk — grace and wisdom ! 

" Beware, my friend, of the world. Let not its cares, nor the deceit- 
fulness of its riches, keep or draw you from Jesus. Before you handle 
the birdlime, be sure you dip your heart and hand in the oil of grace. 
Time flies. Years of plenty and of scarcity, of peace and war, disappear 
before the eternity to which we are all hastening. 

" Remember me kindly to Mrs. Vaughan. That the Lord would 
abundantly bless you both, in your souls, bodies, concerns, and children, 
is- the sincere wish of your affectionate friend, 

"J. Fletcher." 1 

The following letter, to Charles Wesley, refers, among 
other things, to another of Fletcher's publications, which has 
yet to be noticed : — 

"Madeley, May 11, 1776. 

" My Dear Brother, — What are you doing in London ? Are you 
ripening as fast for the grave as I am ? How should we lay out every 
moment for God ! For some days, I have had the symptoms of an inward 
consumptive decay — spitting of blood, etc. Thank God ! I look at 
our last enemy with great calmness. I hope, however, that the Lord 
will spare me to publish my end of the controversy, which is A Double 
Dissertation ufton the Doctrines of Grace and Justice. This piece 
will, I flatter myself, reconcile all the candid Calvinists and ca7tdid 
Arminians, and be a means of pointing out the way in which peace and 
harmony may be restored to the Church. 

" I still look for an outpouring of the Spirit, inwardly and outwardly. 
Should I die before that great day, I shall have the consolation to see 
it from afar. Thank God ! I enjoy uninterrupted peace in the midst of 
my trials, which are, sometimes, not a few. Joy also I possess ; but I 
look for joy of a superior nature. I feel myself, in a good degree, dead 
to praise and dispraise : I hope, at least, that it is so ; because I do 
not feel that the one lifts me up, or that the other dejects me. I want 



1 Letters, 1791, p. 229. 



360 Wesley s Designated Successor. [1776. 



to see a Pentecost Christian Church ; and, if it is not to be seen at this 
time upon earth, I am willing to go and see that glorious wonder in 
heaven. How is it with you ? Are you ready to seize the crown in the 
name of the Redeemer reigning in your heart ? We run a race towards 
the grave. John is likely to outrun you, unless you have a swift foot. 

" I had lately a letter from one of the preachers, who finds great fault 
with me, for having published, in my book on Perfection, your hymn 
called The Last Wish. He calls it dangerous mysticism. My private 
thoughts are, that the truth lies between driving Methodism and still 
mysticism. What think you ? Read the addresses which I have added 
to that piece, and tell me your thoughts. 

" Let us pray that God would renew our youth, as that of the eagle, 
that we may bear fruit in our old age. I hope I shall see 3^ou before 
my death : if not, let us rejoice at the thought of meeting in heaven." 1 

The censured hymn was the following . — 

" To do, or not to do ; to have, 

Or not to have, I leave to Thee : 
To be, or not to be, I leave : 

Thy only will be done in me. 
All my requests are lost in one : 
Father, Thy only will be done. 

" Suffice that, for the season past, 

Myself in things Divine I sought, 
For comforts cried with eager haste, 

And murmur' d that I found them not : 
I leave it now to Thee alone, 
Father, Thy only will be done. 

" Thy gifts I clamour for no more, 

Or selfishly Thy grace require, 
An evil heart to varnish o'er ; 

Jesus, the Giver, I desire ; 
After the flesh no longer known : 
Father, Thy only will be done. 

" Welcome alike the crown or cross ; 

Trouble I cannot ask, nor peace, 
Nor toil, nor rest, nor gain, nor loss, 

Nor joy, nor grief, nor pain, nor ease, 
Nor life, nor death ; but ever groan, 
Father, Thy only will be done." 

This was what Wesley's ItinerantPreacher called "dangerous 
mysticism," and Fletcher, "still mysticism." Whether Fletcher 



1 Letters, 1791, p. 231. 



Age 46.] 



"Driving Methodism" 



361 



himself experienced this " destruction of self-will," and 
" absolute resignation, which characterises a perfect believer," 
it is difficult to determine ; but it may safely be affirmed 
that he was struggling to attain to such a state of holiness. 
" This hymn/' said he, " suits ail the believers who are at the 
bottom of Mount Sion, and begin to join the spirits of just 
men made perfect." And then, as a specimen of what he 
calls " driving Methodism," he adds : — 

' ' But when the triumphal chariot of perfect love gloriously carries you 
to the top of perfection's hill ; — when you are raised far above the common 
heights of the perfect,- — when you are almost translated into glory like 
Elijah, the?i you may sing another hymn of the same Christian poet " 
(Charles Wesley) "with the Rev. Mr. Madan, and the numerous body 
of imperfectionists who use his collection of Psalms, etc." 

This, of course, was a quiet satire on Martin Madan and 
his Calvinistic congregation ; but, passing that, the " driving 
hymn was as follows : — 

" Y\ no in Jesus confide, 

They are bold to outride 
The storms of affliction beneath : 

With the prophet they soar 

To that heavenly shore, 
And. out-fly all the arrows of death. 

' ' By faith we are come 

To our permanent kome ; 
By hope we the rafiture improve : 

By love we still rise, 

And look down on the skies — 
For the heaven of' heavens is love ! 

"Who on earth can conceive 

How happy we live 
In the city of God the great King ! 

What a concert of praise, 

When our Jesus' s grace 
The whole heavenly company sing ! 

' ' What a rapturous song, 

When the glorified throng 
In the spirit of harmony join ! 

Join all the glad choirs, 

Hearts, voices, and lyres, 
And the burden is mercy divine ! " 1 



1 Fletcher's " Last Check to Antinomianism," p. 323. 



362 



Wesley* s Designated Successor. 



[1776. 



Why these long quotations ? Simply to show that real 
Christian Perfection is, according to the "private thoughts" 
of Fletcher, one of the holiest of the old Methodists, a some- 
thing that " lies between " the " driving Methodism and still 
mysticism" embodied in the two remarkable hymns just 
cited. 

Soon after the date of the last letter (May 11, 1776) 
Fletcher's health so entirely failed, that he was compelled 
to leave his parish and repair to the hot wells at Bristol. 
His friend, Charles Wesley, on June 30, embodied the 
feelings of his full heart in the following touching hymn : — 

" Jesus, Thy feeble servant see ! 
Sick is the man beloved by Thee : 

Thy name to magnify, 
To spread Thy Gospel-truths again, 
His precious soul in life detain, 

Nor suffer him to die. 

" The fervent prayer Thou oft hast heard, 
Thy glorious arm in mercy bared ; 

Thy wonder-working power 
Appear' d in all Thy people's sight, 
And stopp'd the Spirit in its flight, 

Or bade the grave restore. 

" In faith we ask a fresh reprieve : 
Frequent in deaths he still shall live, 

If Thou pronounce the word ; 
Shall spend for Thee, his strength renew' d, 
Witness of the all-cleansing blood, 

Forerunner of his Lord. 

" The Spirit that raised Thee from the dead, 
Be in its quick'ning virtue shed,, 

His mortal flesh to raise, 
To consecrate Thy human shrine, 
And fill with energy divine 
Thy minister of grace. 

" Body and soul at once revive ; 
The prayer of faith in which we strive, 

So shall we all proclaim, 
According to Thy gracious will, 
Omnipotent the sick to heal, 
From age to age the same." 1 



1 Wesleyan Methodist Magazine, 1835, p. 576. 



Age 46. ] 



Michael Onions. 



363 



Fifteen years ago (soon after he came to Madeley), at 
Christmas time, in a dark night, Fletcher, on the top of 
Lincoln-hill woods, was at a loss which way to take to reach 
his vicarage at Madeley. Providentially, he met a working 
man of Coalbrookdale, Michael Onions by name, who was 
on his way to Broseley to fetch a fiddler for a dancing party 
in Michael's house. Fletcher told him he had lost his road 
to Madeley, and asked him to put him right. Good-tem- 
pered Michael went half-a-mile out of his way to render the 
muffled stranger the necessary guidance. Conversation 
ensued ; Michael explained the object of his journey to 
Broseley ; Fletcher warned him of his sin and danger ; 
Michael became alarmed, and, instead of proceeding to 
Broseley to secure the services of the fiddler, returned to his 
dwelling at Coalbrookdale. On his entering, the assembled 
dancers asked, " Have you brought the fiddler ? " " No," 
said Michael. " Is he not at home ? " " I don't know." 
" Have you not been to Broseley ? " " No." " Why ? 
What's the matter ? You look ill, and are all of a tremble." 
Michael then stated that he had met some one on the top 
of Lincoln-hill woods ; but whether man or angel he knew 
not ; and, after relating the conversation between them, 
added, " I dare not go to Broseley — I would not for the 
world." Next Sunday morning, Michael and some of his 
dancing friends went to Madeley church ; and there, in the 
voice of Fletcher, he recognized the mysterious traveller 
he had met with on Lincoln-hill. Michael was converted, 
and became one of the first Methodists in Coalbrookdale. 1 
To this humble, but faithful Christian friend, and to his 
fellow Methodists, Fletcher now wrote as follows : — 

"Bristol, July n, 1776. 

" My Dear Brother, — Having just seen, at the Wells, Mr. Darby, 
who is going back to the Dale, I gladly seize the opportunity of letting 
you know what the Lord is doing. for my soul and body. 

"With respect to my soul, I feel a degree of righteousness, peace, 
and joy, and wait for the establishment of His internal kingdom in the 
Holy Ghost. The hope of my being rooted and grounded in the love, 
that casts out slavish fear, grows more lively every day. I am not 



x Wesleyan Times, March 3, 1856, p. 138. 



3^4 



Wesley* s Designated Successor, 



[1776. 



afraid of any evil tidings, and my heart stands calm, believing in the 
Lord, and desiring Him to do with me whatsoever He pleaseth. 

"With respect to my body, I know not what to say ; but the physician 
says he hopes I shall do well ; and so I hope, and believe too, whether 
I recover my strength or not. Health and sickness, life and death, are 
best when the Lord sends them. All things work together for good to 
those that love God. 

" I am forbid preaching; but, blessed be God! I am not forbid, by 
my heavenly Physician, to pray, believe, and love. This is a sweet 
work, which heals, delights, and strengthens. 

" I hope you bear me on your hearts, as I do you on mine. My wish 
for 3'ou is that you may be possessors of an inward kingdom of grace ; 
that you may so hunger and thirst after righteousness as to be filled. 
Oh ! be hearty in the cause of religion. Be humbly zealous for 3-our 
own salvation, and for God's glory ; nor forget to care for the salvation 
of each other. Keep yourselves in the love of God; and keep one 
another by example, reproof, exhortation, e?icouragement, social 
prayer, and a faithful itse of all the means of grace. Use yourselves 
to bow at the feet of Christ. Go to Him continually for the holy 
anointing of His Spirit, who will be a Teacher always near, alwa3~s with 
you and in you. If you have that inward Instructor, 3-ou will suffer no 
material loss when your outward teachers are removed. Make the most 
of dear Mr. Greaves 1 while 3-ou have him. WTiile 3'ou have the light of 
God's word, believe in the light, that you may be children of the light, 
fitted for the kingdom of eternal light, where I charge 3'ou to meet 3 T our 
affectionate brother and minister, 

"J. Fletcher." - 

To Charles Perronet, son of the venerable Vicar of Shore- 
ham, Fletcher wrote : — 

"Bristol, July 12, 1776. 
" My Very Dear Brother, — I gladly thank you for your last 
favour. The Lord keeps me hanging by a thread. He weighs me in 
the balance for life and death ; I trust Him for the choice. He knows, 
far better than I, what is best ; and I leave all to His unerring wisdom. 
I am calm, and wait, with submission, for what the Lord will say 
concerning me. I wait to be baptized into all His fzclness, and trust 
the word — the word of His grace.'" 3 

Exactly a month after the date of this letter, holy Charles 
Perronet himself fell asleep in Jesus. " My dear Charles/' 
wrote his venerable father, " after wearing out a weakly con- 
stitution in the most unwearied endeavours to bring many to 



1 "Who had again become Fletcher's curate. 

2 Letters, 1791, p. .14. 

3 Ibid, p. 231. 



Age 46.] 



Letters to Mr. Ireland. 



365 



Christ, breathed out his pious soul in the remarkable words 
of his dear Lord, ' Father, into Thy hands I commend my 
spirit' " " I have uninterrupted fellowship with God," cried 
the dying saint ; " and Christ is all in all to me." 1 As soon 
as Fletcher heard of the death of this godly man, he wrote 
to the bereaved father as follows : — 

" Methinks I see you, right honoured Sir, mounted, as another Moses, 
on the top of Pisgah, and through the telescope of faith descrying the 
promised land ; or, rather, in the present instance, I observe you, like 
another Joshua, on the banks of Jordan, viewing all Israel, with your 
son among them, passing over the river to their great possessions. 
Permit me, therefore, in consideration of your years and office, to 
exclaim, in the language of young Elisha to his ancient seer, ' My 
father ! My father i The chariots of Israel and the horsemen thereof.' 

" ' There, there they are, and there is your son ! 
Whom faith pursues, and eager hope discerns, 
In yon bright chariot, as a cherub borne 
On wings of love, to uncreated realms 
Of deathless joy, and everlasting peace."' 2 

On the day Charles Perronet died, Wesley was in Bristol, 
and wrote : — 

" 1776. August 12. — I found Mr. Fletcher a little better, and proposed 
his taking a journey with me to Cornwall ; nothing being so likely to 
restore his health as a journey of four or five hundred miles. But his 
physician would in no wise consent, so I gave up the point." 3 

Instead of going to Cornwall Fletcher returned to Madeley, 
where he wrote two letters to his friend. James Ireland, Esq , 
from which the following are extracts : — 

•• Madeley, August 18, 1776. My breast is very weak, but, if it please 
God, it will in time recover strength. Mr. Greaves will take all the 
duty upon himself, and I shall continue to take rest, exercise, and the 
food which was recommended to me. The Lord grant me to rest myself 
on Christ, to exercise myself in charity, and to feed upon the bread of 
life, which God has given us in Jesus Christ. 

" I thank you, my dear friend, for all your favours and all your atten- 
tion to me. What returns shall I make ? I will drink the cup of thanks- 
giving, and I will bless the name of the Lord. I will thank my dear 
friend and wish him all the temporal blessings he conferred upon me, 



1 Atmore's " Methodist Memorial." 

2 Benson's "Life of Fletcher." 

3 Wesley's Journal. 



366 Wesley* s Designated Successor. 



[1776. 



and all those spiritual ones which were not in his power to bestow. Live 
in health ; live piously ; live content ; live in Christ ; live for eternity ; 
live to make your wife, your children, your servants, your neighbours 
happy. And may the God of all grace give back a hundredfold to you 
and your dear wife all the kindnesses with which you have loaded me." 1 
" Madeley, August 24, 1776. My dear friend, I have received the 
news of your loss, and of the gain of your younger daughter. She has 
entered into port, and has left you on a tempestuous sea. I recommend 
to Mrs. Ireland the resignation of David when he lost his son ; and do 
you give her the example. The day of death is preferable to that of our 
birth ; with respect to infants, the maxim of Solomon is indubitable. 

what an honour is it to be the father and mother of a little cherub 
who hovers round the throne of God in heavenly glory ! 

" Roquet 2 dead and buried ! The jolly man who last summer shook 
his head at me as at a dying man ! How frail are we ! God help us to 
live to-day / to-morrow is the fool's day. 

" I have not, at present, the least idea that I am called to quit my 
post here. I see no probability of being useful in Switzerland. My call 
is here ; I am sure of it. If I undertook the journey, it would be merely 
to accompany you. I dare not gratify friendship by taking such a step. 

1 have no faith in the prescriptions of your physician ; and I think if 
health be better for us than sickness, we may enjoy it as well here as in 
France or Italy. If sickness be best for us, why shun it ? Everything 
is good when it comes from God. Nothing but a baptism of fire and 
the most evident openings of Providence can engage me in such a 
journey. If I reject your obliging offer to procure me a substitute, 
attribute it to my fear of taking a false step, of quitting my post without 
command, and of engaging in a warfare to which the Lord does not 
call me." 3 

A fortnight later, Fletcher wrote again to Mr. Ireland : — 

" Madeley, September 7, 1776. My dear friend, my health is better 
than when I wrote last. I have not yet preached ; rather from a sense 
of duty to my friends, and high thoughts of the labours of Mr. Greaves 
(who does the work of an evangelist to better purpose than I), than to 
spare myself ; for, if I am not mistaken, I am as able to do my work 
now as I was a year ago. 

"A fortnight ago, I paid a visit to West Bromwich. I ran away 
from the kindness of my parishioners, who oppressed me with tokens of 
their love. To me there is nothing so extremely trying as excessive 
kindness. I am of the king's mind when the people showed their love 
to him on his journey to Portsmouth: ' I can bear,' he said, 'the hissings 



1 Letters, 1791, p. 232. 

2 The Rev. James Roquet, who, in 1775, had turned against his old 
friend Wesley respecting the rebellion in America. 

3 Letters, 1791, p. 234. 



Age 47.] 



Letter to Charles Wesley. 



367 



of a London mob, but these shouts of joy are too much for me.' You, 
my dear friend, Mrs. Ireland, Mrs. Norman, and all your family, have 
put me to that severe trial, to which all trials caused by the hard words 
that have been spoken against me are nothing. 

"At our age, a recover}' can be but a short reprieve. Let us then 
give up ourselves daily to the Lord, as people who have no confidence 
in the flesh, and do not trust to to-morrow. I find my weakness, un- 
profitableness, and wretchedness daily more and more ; and the more 
I find them, the more help I have to sink into self-abhorrence. Nor do 
I despair to sink so in it as to die to self and revive in my God." 1 

Fletcher began to hope that he would soon be able to 
resume his work. To Charles Wesley he wrote as follows: — 

" Madeley, September 15, 1776. 

11 My Very Dear Brother, — I lately consulted a pious gentleman, 
near Lichfield, famous for his skill in the disorders of the breast. He 
assured me I am in no immediate danger of a consumption of the lungs ; 
and that my disorder is upon the nerves, in consequence of too close 
thinking. He permitted me to write and preach in moderation ; and 
gave me medicines, which, I think, are of service in taking off my 
feverish heats. My spitting of blood is stopped, and I may yet be 
spared to travel with you as an invalid. 

<£ If God adds one inch to my span I see my calling. I desire to 
know nothing but Christ, and Him crucified, revealed in the Spirit. I 
long to feel the utmost j)Ower of the Spirit's dispensation, and I will 
endeavour to bear my testimony to the glory of that dispensation both 
with my pen and tongue. Some of our injudicious or inattentive friends 
will probably charge me w-ith novelty for it ; but, be that as it will, let 
us meeklv stand for the truth as it is in Jesus, and trust the Lord for 
everything. I thank God I feel so dead to popular applause that, I 
trust, I should not be afraid to maintain a truth against all the world ; 
and yet I dread to dissent from any child of God, and feel ready to con- 
descend to even- one. O what depths of humble love, and what heights 
of Gospel truth, do I sometimes see ! I want to sink into the former and 
rise into the latter. Help me by your example, letters, and prayers." 1 

At the same period of time, Fletcher wrote to Joseph 
Benson, giving him an account of the state of his health and 
of his literaiy projects. 

"My Very Dear Brother,— Your kind letter has followed me 
from Bristol to Madeley, where I have been for some weeks. My health 
is better than it was in August, but it is far from being established. 
Close thinking and writing had brought upon me a slow fever, with a 



Letters, 1791, p. 250 
2 Ibid, p. 237. 



3 68 



Wesley* s Designated Successor. 



[1776. 



cough and spitting of blood, which a physician took for symptoms of a 
consumption of the lungs ; whereas they were only symptoms of a con- 
sumption of the nerves and solids. He put me accordingly upon the 
lowest diet, and had me blooded four times, which made much against 
me. I am, however, greatly recovered since I have begun to eat meat 
again. My cough and spitting of blood have left me, but want of sleep 
and a slow fever keep me still very low. If the Lord pleases, He can 
in a moment restore my strength ; but He needs not a worm. I thank 
Him for having kept me perfectly resigned to His will, and calm in the 
awful scene which I have passed through. 

" I design to conclude my last controversial piece as I shall be able, 
and hope it will give my friends some satisfaction ; because it will show 
the cause of all our doctrinal errors, and will place the doctrine of 
election and reprobation upon its proper basis. I finish also my essay 
on the ' Dispensation of the Spirit,' 1 which is the thing I want most to 
see your thoughts upon. Pray for light and power, truth and love ; and 
impart to me a share of your experiences, to quicken my dulness of 
apprehension and feeling. If God spare me a little, it will be to bear 
my testimony to the doctrine of perfect spiritual Christianity. May we 
be personal witnesses of this glorious dispensation, and be so inflamed 
with love as to kindle all around us. 

" Give my kind love and thanks to all enquiring friends. If I live 
over the winter, I shall, should Providence open the way, visit you all " 
[at Newcastle-on-Tyne], " and assure you that I am in Christ your 
affectionate brother and servant." 2 

Three weeks after the date of these letters, poor Fletcher's 
hope of recovery was terribly shaken. On October 5, 1776, 
his disorder unexpectedly and violently returned, and his 
friends around him thought he was about to die. Some one, 
perhaps his curate, Mr. Greaves, immediately improvised a 
beautiful hymn, which was sung, by a distressed congregation, 
in Madeley church, on the following day, Friday, October 6. 
The hymn is too full of affection and piety to be omitted. 
It was as follows : — 

" O Thou, before whose gracious throne 
We bow our suppliant spirits down, . 
View the sad breast and streaming eye, 
And let our sorrows pierce the sky. 

" Thou know'st the anxious cares we feel, 
And all our trembling lips would tell ; 



1 This essay was not published separately, but was probably embodied 
in the " Portrait of St. Paul," to be noticed anon. 

2 Benson's " Life of Fletcher." 



Age 47.] 



Improvised Hymn. 



369 



Thou only canst assuage our grief, 
And yield our woe-fraught hearts relief. 

" Though we have sinned, and justly dread 
The vengeance hovering o'er our head, 
Yet, Power benign ! Thy servant spare, 
Nor turn aside Thy people's prayer. 

"Avert the swift-descending stroke, 
Nor smite the shepherd of the flock ; 
Lest o'er the barren waste we stray, 
To prowling wolves an easy prey. 

" Restore him, sinking to the grave ; 
Stretch out Thy arm, make haste to save ; 
Back to our hopes and wishes give, 
And bid our friend and father live. 

" Bound to each soul with sacred ties, 
In every breast his image lies ; 
Thy pitying aid, O God, impart, 
Nor rend him from each bleeding heart. 

" Yet, if our supplications fail, 
And prayers and tears cannot prevail, 
Condemned, on this dark desert coast, 
To mourn our much-loved leader lost, — 

" Be Thou his strength, be Thou his stay, 
Support him through the gloomy way ; 
Comfort his soul, surround his bed, 
And guide him through the dreary shade. 

"Around him may Thy angels wait, 
Deck'd with their robes of heavenly state, 
To teach his happy soul to rise, 
And waft him to his native skies." 1 



As soon as possible, Wesley made his way to Madeley, 
and escorted Fletcher to London. On November 13, they 
set out for Norwich, and nine days afterwards Wesley 
wrote, " I brought Mr. Fletcher back to London consider- 
ably better than when he set out." Among other places, 
they visited Lowestoft, where Wesley opened the new 
Preaching-house, and where Fletcher preached on Wednes- 



The Local Preacher 's Magazine, 1852, p. 113. 

24 



370 



Wesley's Z)esignafed Successor. 



[1776. 



day morning, November 20} Whilst here, he wrote the 
following to Mr. Benson : — 

"Lowestoft, November 21, 1776. 
" My Dear Friend, — Mr. Wesley having invited me to travel with 
him, to see if change of air and motion will be a means of restoring me 
to a share of my former health, I have accompanied him through 
Oxfordshire, Northamptonshire, and Norfolk ; and I hope I am rather 
better than worse. I find it good to be with this extraordinary servant 
of God. I think his diligence and wisdom are matchless. It is a good 
school for me, only I am too old a scholar to make proficiency. How- 
ever, let us live to God to-day, and trust Him for to-morrow ; so that, 
w T hether we are laid up in a sick bed or a damp grave, or whether we 
are yet able to act, we may be able to say, 

" 1 God is the sea of love, 

Where all my pleasures roll, 
The circle where my passions move, 
And centre of my soul.' " 2 

Another characteristic letter must be introduced. Certain 
good Methodists at Hull and York having invited him, when 
able, to visit the great Methodist county, Fletcher wrote to 
them as follows : — 

"To Messrs. Hare, Terry, Fox, and Good, at Hull; — and Messrs. 
Preston, Simpson, and Ramsden, at York. 

"London, November 12, 1776. 

" My Dear Brethren, — I thank you for your kind letters and invi- 
tations to visit you, and the brethren about you. I have often found an 
attraction in Yorkshire. My desire was indeed a little selfish ; I wanted 
to improve by the conversation of my unknown brethren. If God bids 
me be strong again, I shall be glad to try if He will be pleased to 
comfort us by the mutual faith both of you and me. My desire is, that 
Christ may be glorified both in my life and death. If I have any desire 
to live at any time, it is principally to be a witness, in word and deed, 
of the dispensation of power from on high ; and to point out that king- 
dom which does not consist in word, but in power, even in righteous- 
ness, peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost, the Spirit of -power. I am 
writing an Essay upon that important part of the Christian doctrine. 

" Should I be spared to visit you, the keep of a horse, and the poor 
rider, will be all the burden I should lay on you ; and that will be more 
than my Heavenly Master indulged Himself in. I am just setting out 
for Norwich with Mr. Wesley, whose renewed strength and immense 



1 Wesley's Journal. 

2 Benson's "Life of Fletcher." 



Age 47.] Fletchers Second Visit to Ever ton. 371 



labours astonish me. What a pattern for preachers ! His redeeming 
the time is, if I mistake not, matchless. 

' 'Should I never have the pleasure of thanking you in person for 

your brotherly regard, I beg you will endeavour to meet me in the 

kingdom of our Father, where distance of time and place is lost in the 

fulness of Him who is all t7t all. The way ye know, — the penitential 
way of a heart-felt faith working by obedient love." 1 

Early in the month of December, Fletcher visited Mr. 
Gorham, at St. Neots. One of his inducements to under- 
take this journey was to have an opportunity of conversing 
with Berridge, Vicar of Everton, and with Henry Venn, who, 
a few years before, had left Huddersfield, and settled in a 
small country village, as Rector of Yelling. Mr. Gorham's 
son accompanied Fletcher to Everton. Sixteen years had 
elapsed since Fletcher's former visit there ; and, during that 
interval, Berridge had published his " Christian World Un- 
masked ;" and Fletcher had severely handled its Calvinian 
doctrines in his "Fifth Check to Antinomianism ;" but there 
was no room for malice in Christian hearts like theirs. The 
instant Fletcher entered the parsonage at Everton, Berridge 
rose up, ran to meet him, embraced him with folded arms, 
and cried, " My dear brother, how could we write against 
each other, when we both aim at the same thing — the glory 
of God, and the good of souls ! My book lies quietly on 
the shelf, — and there let it lie." For two hours, the loving 
polemics had an unbroken conversation ; when Berridge 
said, " We must not part without praying." Down they fell 
upon their knees. Full of the great truth then occupying 
his mind, and which probably had been the chief subject of 
conversation with his friend, Fletcher began to pray for an 
effusion of the Spirit, and for greater degrees of sanctifica- 
tion and usefulness. Berridge followed, with a prayer full 
of love and faith. The two seemed as if it were impossible 
to separate ; and Fletcher had to be torn away, to keep an 
appointment, at St. Neots, with the Rector of Yelling. Venn 
was charmed with Fletcher, and became so absorbed in the 
conversation, that Fletcher had to remind him, playfully, of 
the meal before him. A year afterwards, they met again, at 
Bristol, lodged together for six weeks in the same house, 



1 Methodist Magazz?ie, 1801, p. 43. 



372 



Wesley s Designated Successor. 



[1776. 



and Venn, on his return to Yelling, declared, from his pulpit, 
that Fletcher was " like an angel on earth." 

■ Notwithstanding considerable opposition, Fletcher was 
permitted to preach once in St. Neots Church, and took, 
as his text, " We love Him, because He first loved us." Many 
hung upon the lips of the preacher ; but three or four of 
his hearers, in great j^uch^on, left before his sermon was 
ended. " I will not be tedious," cried Fletcher, as the dis- 
contented were retreating, u but oh that I might persuade 
you to love Him, who first loved us !" About thirty of his 
congregation followed him to his lodgings, where, at their 
request, he preached again, most of those that were present 
being powerfully affected. 

Considering the state of his health, this preaching exercise 
was hardly prudent ; but Fletcher had less regard for his 
health than for what he conceived to be his duty. The 
season was the depth of winter ; but he maintained his 
accustomed early rising. One morning, before four o'clock, 
Mr. Gorham stole gently into his chamber, and kindled his 
fire. The crackling of the wood awoke him ; and, instantly, 
showing the frame of mind in which he habitually lived, 
whether awake or asleep, he cried, " Is it you, my kind host, 
with your candle and fire ? May the Lord light the candle 
of faith and the fire of love in our hearts!" When nearly 
fifty years had elapsed, Mr. Gorham said, " I have never 
forgotten this salutation ; and often do I step into the room, 
and look at the spot where I received the dear saint's thanks, 
and heard his prayer." 1 

At this time, there resided at the suburban village of 
Stoke Newington a gentleman who must have a brief notice. 
His father, James Greenwood, was one of the earliest mem- 
bers of the Methodist Society, at the Foundery, London ; and 
he himself was one of the first trustees of Wesley's chapel, 
in City Road. He had a lucrative business, as an^ uphol- 
sterer, in Rood Lane and Fenchurch Street ; and died, at 
the age of fifty-six, in 1783, his remains being put into one 
of the early-dug graves in the burial ground of City Road 
Chapel. 2 Wesley's mention of his death is worth quoting : — 

1 Appendix to Benson's " Life of Fletcher." 

2 Stevenson's " City Road Chapel." 



Age 47] Letter to the Parishioners of Mudeley. 373 



" 1783, February 21. — To-day Charles Greenwood went to rest. He 
had been a melancholy man all his days, full of doubts and fears, and 
continually writing bitter things against himself. When he was first 
taken ill, he said he should die, and was miserable through fear of 
death ; but, two days before he died, the clouds dispersed, and he was 
unspeakably happy, telling his friends, ' God has revealed to me things 
which it is impossible for man to utter.' Just when he died, such glory 
filled the room, that it seemed to be a little heaven ; none could grieve 
or shed a tear, but all present appeared to be partakers of his joy." 1 

In the necrology of the Methodists, there are but few 
brighter death-bed scenes than that of Charles Greenwood, 
of Stoke Newington. 2 

On his return from St. Neots, on December 1 6, Fletcher 
took up his residence in the house of this worthy man. 
Wesley disapproved of this, and wrote : — 

" I verily believe, if Mr. Fletcher had travelled with me, partly in the 
chaise, and partly on horseback, only a few months longer, he would 
quite have recovered his health. But this those about him would not 
permit : so being detained in London by his kind but injudicious friends, 
while I pursued my journeys, his spitting of blood, with all the other 
symptoms, returned, and rapidly increased, till the physicians pronounced 
him to be far advanced in a true, pulmonary consumption." 3 

Fletcher continued to reside with Mr. Greenwood till about 
the beginning of the month of May, 1777; but, before 
proceeding to that year, extracts must be given from a 
remarkable letter, which he wrote " to the parishioners of 
Madeley." This was one of his last efforts in the year 
1776 : — 

" Newixgtox, December 28, 1776. 

" My Dear Parishioxers, — I hoped to have spent the Christmas 
holidays with you, and to have ministered to you in holy things ; but 
the weakness of my body confining me here, I humbly submit to the 
Divine dispensation. I ease the trouble of my absence by reflecting on 
the pleasure I have felt, in years past, while singing with you, ' Unto us 
a child is born, unto us a Son is given.' This truth is as true now as it 
was then. Let us receive it with all readiness, and it will unite us. 

" In order to this, may the eye of your understanding be more and 
more opened to see your need of a Redeemer ; and to behold the suit- 
ableness, freeness, and fulness of the redemption, which was wrought 



1 Wesley's Journal. 

2 See an account of it in the Ar?ninian Magazine for 1783. 

3 Wesley's " Life of Fletcher." 



374 



Wesley* s Designated Successor. [1776= 



out by the Son of God, and which is applied by the Spirit through faith ! 
The wish which glows in my soul is so ardent and powerful, that it brings 
me down on my knees, while I write, and, in that supplicating posture, 
I entreat you all to consider and improve the day of your visitation, and 
to prepare, in good earnest, to meet, with joy, your God and your 
unworthy pastor in another world. I beseech you, by all the ministerial 
and providential calls you have had for these seventeen years, harden 
not your hearts. Let the longsuffering of God towards us, who survive 
the hundreds I have buried, lead us all to repentance. Dismiss your 
sins, and embrace Jesus Christ, who wept for you in the manger, bled 
for you in Gethsemane, hung for you on the cross, and now pleads for 
you on His mediatorial throne. By all that is dear to you, meet me not 
on the great day in your sins, enemies to Christ by unbelief, and to God 
by wicked works. 

"The sum of all I have preached to you is contained in four pro- 
positions. First, heartily repent of your sins, original and actual. 
Secondly, believe the Gospel of Christ in sincerity and truth. Thirdly, 
in the power which true faith gives, run the way of God's commandments 
before God and men. Fourthly, by continuing to take up your cross, 
and to receive the pure milk of God's word, grow in grace, and in the 
knowledge of Jesus Christ. 

" Should God bid me stay on earth a little longer, and should He 
renew my strength to do among you the work of a pastor, I hope I shall 
prove a more humble, zealous, and diligent minister than I have hitherto 
been. Some of you have supposed that I made more ado about eternity 
and your precious souls than they were worth ; but how great was your 
mistake. Alas ! it is my grief and shame that I have not been, both in 
public and private, a thousand times more earnest and importunate with 
you about your spiritual concerns. Pardon me, my dear friends, — pardon 
me my ignorances and negligences in this respect. And as I most 
humbly ask your forgiveness, so I most heartily forgive any of you, who 
may, at any time, have made no account of my little labours. 

" The more nearly I consider death and the grave, judgment and 
eternity, the more I feel that I have preached to you the truth, and that 
the truth is solid as the rock of ages. Although I hope to see much 
more of the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living than I do see, 
yet, blessed be the Divine mercy ! I see enough to keep my mind at all 
times unruffled, and to make me willing calmly to resign my soul into 
the hands of my faithful Creator, my loving Redeemer, and my sanctifying 
Comforter, this moment, or the next, if He calls for it. I desire your 
public thanks for all the favours He showeth me continually, with respect 
to both my soul and body. Help me to be thankful ; for it is £ pleasant 
thing to be thankful. Permit me also to bespeak an interest in your 
prayers. Ask that my faith may be willing to receive all that God's 
grace is willing to bestow. Ask that I may meekly suffer, and zealously 
do all the will of God ; and that, living or dying, I may say, with 
the witness of God's Spirit, ' For me to live is Christ, and to die is 
gain.' 

" If God calls me from earth, I beg He may appoint a more faithful 



Age 47-] Letter to the Parishioners of Made ley. 375 



shepherd over you. You need not fear that He will not : you see that, 
for these many months, you have not only had no famine of the word, 
but the richest plenty ; and what God has done for months, He can do 
for years ; yea, for all the years of your life. Only pray ; ' ask and you 
shall receive.' Meet me at the throne of grace, and you shall meet at 
the throne of glory your affectionate, obliged, and unworthy minister, 

"J. Fletcher." 1 



1 Letters, 1791, p. 21. 



376 Wesley s Designated Successor. [1777. 



CHAPTER XX. 
PUBLICATIONS AND CORRESPONDENCE IN 

1777- 

IN the year 1777, Fletcher terminated his controversy with 
the Calvinists. He wrote : — 

''To the best of my knowledge, I have not fixed one consequence upon 
the principles of my opponents, which does not fairly and necessarily 
flow from their doctrine. And I have endeavoured to do justice to their 
piety, declaring, again and again, my full persuasion that they abhor 
such consequences." 

His publications, in 1777, were the following : — 
1. "The Doctrines of Grace and Justice equally essential 
to the pure Gospel: Being some Remarks on the mischievous 
divisions caused among Christians, by parting those doctrines. 
Being an Introduction to a Plan of Reconciliation between 
the Defenders of the Doctrines of Partial Grace, commonly 
called Calvinists ; and the Defenders of the Doctrines of 
Impartial Justice, commonly called Arminians. By John 
Fletcher, Vicar of Madeley, Salop. London : Printed by 
R. Hawes, 1777." i2mo, 39 pp. 

It is needless to furnish an outline of this able pamphlet, 
inasmuch as the doctrines it enforces and the doctrines it 
condemns are substantially the same as have been repeatedly 
introduced to the reader's notice. There is one statement, 
however, which Fletcher's admirers have generally overlooked, 
but which proves, beyond controversy, that Fletcher was, 
what is now-a-days called, a Millenarian. After dwelling 
on what he designates the " four dispensations," namely, 
" Gentilism," " Judaism," " the Gospel of John the Baptist," 
and " the perfect Gospel of Christ," which " is Gentilism, 
Judaism, and the Baptism of John, arrived at their full 



Age 47.] 



Fletcher a Millenarian . 



377 



maturity," he proceeds to argue that "another Gospel dispen- 
sation" is yet to come. Hence the following : — 

" In the Psalms, Prophets, Acts, Epistles, and especially in the Reve- 
lation, we have a variety of promises, that, 'in the day of His' displayed 
'power,' Christ will 'come in His glory, to judge among the heathen, 
to wound even kings in the day of His wrath, to root up the wicked, to 
fill the places with their dead bodies, to smite in sunder' antichrist, and 
'the heads over divers countries,' and to 'lift up His' triumphant 'head' 
on this very earth, where He once 'bowed His' wounded 'head, and 
gave up the ghost.' Compare Psalm ex. with Acts i. 11,2 Thess. i. 10, 
Rev. xix., etc. In that great day, another Gospel dispensation shall 
take place. We have it now in prophecy, as the Jews had the Gospel 
of Christ's first advent; but when Christ shall 'come to destroy the 
wicked, to be' actually 'glorified in His saints, and admired in all them 
that believe, — -in that day,' ministers of the Gospel shall no more pro- 
phesy, but, speaking a plain historical truth, they shall lift up their 
voices as ' the voice of many waters and mighty thunderings, saying, 
Allelujah ! for the Lord God Omnipotent reigneth ; the marriage of the 
Lamb is come ; His wife,' the church of the first-born, has made herself 
ready ; blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection ; 
he reigns with Christ a thousand years' (Rev. xix. 20). ' Blessed are 
the meek, for they do inherit the earth' (Matt. x. 5). 'The times of 
refreshing are come ; and He has sent Jesus Christ, who before was 
preached unto you, whom the heavens did receive ' till this solemn season ; 
but now are come 'the times of restitution of all things, which God hath 
spoken by the mouth of all His holy prophets since the world began' 
(Acts iii. 19, etc.) May the Lord hasten this Gospel dispensation! 
and, till it take place, may, ' the Spirit and the bride say, Come ! ' " 

It must be granted that this is but remotely related to the 
Calvinian controversy ; but, in a Life of Fletcher, it is too 
interesting to be omitted. 

2. Fletcher's second publication, in 1777, was a composite 
one, and embraced, First, " Bible Arminianism and Bible 
Calvinism : A two-fold Essay, — Part the First displaying 
the doctrines of Partial Grace, Part the Second, those of 
Impartial Justice." i2mo, 84 pp. Secondly, "The Re- 
conciliation ; or, an Easy Method to unite the professing 
People of God, by placing the Doctrines of Grace and Justice 
in such a light as to make candid Arminians Bible-Calvinists ; 
and the candid Calvinists, Bible-Arminians." i2mo, 85 pp. 
Thirdly, to these was appended, "The Plan of Reconciliation," 
the whole making a small i2mo volume of 187 pages. The 



378 Wesley s Designated Successor. [1777- 



pamphlets were dedicated to his friend "James Ireland, Esq., 
of Brislington, near Bristol," as follows : — 

" Dear Sir, — To whom could a plan of reconciliation between the 
Calvinists and Arminians be more properly dedicated, than to a son of 
peace, whose heart, hand, and house are open to Calvinists, Arminians, 
and neuters ? You kindly receive the divines who contend for the 
doctrines of grace ; and I want words to describe the Christian courtesy 
which you show me and other ministers who make a stand for the 
doctrines of justice. To you I am indebted for the honour of a friendly 
interview with the author 1 of the 'Circular Letter,' which I thought 
myself obliged to oppose ; and, as you succeeded in that labour of love, 
it is natural for me to hope that by your influence, and by the patronage 
of such candid, generous peacemakers as the gentleman" (John 
Thornton, Esq.) " to whom I have often compared you, these reconciling 
sheets will be perused by some with more attention than if they had no 
name prefixed to them but that of your most obliged, affectionate friend 
and servant, J. Fletcher. 

"Newington, Afiri! 16, 1777." 

It is a well-known fact that men like Romaine were often 
the guests of Mr. Ireland ; and that Berridge, Venn, and 
others of the same way of thinking were always welcome 
guests in the mansion of Mr. Thornton. Both, however, 
were large-hearted men, and wherever they met with un- 
doubted piety, whether in a Calvinist or an Arminian brother, 
they were thankful and glad. 

No record of the " friendly interview " between Fletcher 
and Walter Shirley now exists ; but, bearing in mind the 
position which Mr. Shirley occupied, there cannot be a doubt 
that the result of their " interview " would be considerable, 
and in harmony with the object at which Fletcher was now 
strenuously aiming. . 

The task which Fletcher undertook was arduous, and he 
knew it. He writes : — 

" Some persons will urge that truth should never be sacrificed to love 
and peace ; that the Calvinists and the Arminians holding doctrines 
diametrically opposite, one party, at least, must be totally in the wrong ; 
and, as the other party ought not to be reconciled to error, the agreement, 
I propose, is impossible : it will never take place, unless the Calvinists 
can be prevailed upon to give up unconditional election, and their 
favourite doctrines of partial grace ; or the Arminians can be persuaded 
to part with conditional election, and their favourite doctrines of im- 



» The Rev. Walter Shirley. 



Age 47.] 



Trying to Reconcile Arminiajts and Calvi?iists. 379 



partial justice ; and as this is too great a sacrifice to be expected from 
either party, it is in vain to attempt bringing about a reconciliation 
between them. 

" This objection is weighty ; but, far from discouraging me, it affords 
me an opportunity of laying before my readers the ground of the hope 
I entertain, to reconcile the Calvinists and the Arminians. I should, 
indeed, utterly despair of effecting it, were I obliged to prove that 
either party is entirely in the wrong ; but I expect some success, because 
my grand design is to demonstrate that both parties have an important 
truth on their side." 

Fletcher proceeds to give his own view on the Calvinian 
side of the question, as follows : — 

"The partial election and reprobation of free grace is the gracious 
and wise choice which God, as a sovereign and arbitrary Benefactor, 
makes or refuses to make of some persons, churches, cities, and nations, 
to bestow upon them, for His own mercy's sake, more favours than He 
does upon others. It is the partiality with which He imparts His 
talents of nature, providence, and grace, to His creatures or servants ; 
giving five talents to some, two to others, and one to others ; not only 
without respect to their works, or acquired worthiness of any sort, but 
frequently in opposition to all personal demerit." 

This admirable definition of a sound doctrine is sustained 
by references to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, and other 
Old Testament personages ; also to the cities of Jerusalem, 
Chorazin, and Bethsaida ; to the countries of Egypt, Judea, 
Syria, and England, etc. 

Then, turning to the Arminian side of the controversy, 
Fletcher gives the following equally correct definition : — 

"The impartial election and reprobation of justice is the righteous 
and wise choice which God, as an equitable and unbribed Judge, makes, 
or refuses to make, of some persons, churches, cities, and nations, 
judicially to bestow upon them, for Christ's sake, gracious rewards, 
according to His evangelical promises ; or judicially to inflict upon 
them, for righteousness' sake, condign punishments, according to His 
reasonable threatenings." 

This definition is also supported by a large number of 
Scripture examples, showing Fletcher's perfect knowledge of 
the holy books. He then writes : — 

"Rigid Calvinists and rigid Arminians are both in the wrong; the 
former in obscuring the doctrines of impartial justice, and the latter 
in clouding the doctrines of partial grace. But moderate Calvinists 
and candid Arminians are very near each other, and very near the 



38o 



Wesley' s Designated Successor. 



[1777- 



truth ; the difference there is between them being more owing to con- 
fusion, want of proper explanation, and misapprehension of each other's 
sentiments, than to any real, inimical opposition to the truth, or to one 
another." 

Fletcher next propounds his " Plan of Reconciliation." 

First of all, he adduces the well-known plan of union, 
which Wesley, thirteen years before, had ineffectually pro- 
posed to the evangelical clergymen of the Church of England, 
including Romaine, Shirley, Newton, Venn, and Berridge ; 
after which he proceeds to observe : — 

" I do not see why such a plan might not be, in some degree, admitted 
by all the ministers of the Gospel, whether they belong to or dissent 
from the Establishment. I would extend my brotherly love to all 
Christians in general, but more particularly to all Protestants, and 
most particularly to all the Protestants of the Established Church ; but 
God forbid that I should exclude from my brotherly affection, and 
occasional assistance, any true minister of Christ, because he casts the 
Gospel net among the Presbyterians, the Independents, the Quakers, 
or the Baptists ! So far as they cordially aim at the conversion of 
sinners, I will offer them the right hand of fellowship, and communicate 
with them in spirit. Might not good men and sincere ministers form 
themselves into a Society of reconcilers, whatever be their denomination 
and mode of worship ? There is a Society for promoting religious 
knowledge among the poor ; some of its members are Churchmen and 
others Dissenters ; some are Calvinists and others Arminians ; and yet 
it flourishes, and the design of it is happily answered. Alight not such 
a Society be formed for promoting peace and love among professors ? 
Is not charity preferable to knowledge ? There is another respectable 
Society for promoting the Christian faith among the heathen ; and why 
should there not be a Society for promoting unanimity and toleration 
among Christians ? Ought not the welfare of our fellow- Christians to 
lie as near our hearts as that of the heathen ? 

" Many gentlemen, some laymen and others clergymen, some Church- 
men and others Dissenters, wanted lately to procure the repeal of our 
articles of religion. Notwithstanding the diversity of their employments, 
principles, and denominations, they united, wrote circular letters, drew 
up petitions, and used all their interest with men in power to bring about 
their design. Again, some warm men thought it proper to blow up the 
fire of discontent in the breasts of our American fellow-subjects. How 
did they go about the dangerous work ? With what ardour did they speak 
and write, preach and print, fast and pray, publish manifestoes and make 
them circulate, associate and strengthen their associations, and at last 
venture their fortunes, reputations, and lives, in the execution of their 
warlike project ! Go, ye men of peace, and do at least half as much to 



Age 47.] Fletcher y s Proposed Plan of Reconciliation. 381 



carry on your friendly design. Associate, pray, preach, and print for 
the furtherance of peace. 

"Might not moderate Calvinists send, with success, circular letters 
to their rigid Calvinian brethren ; and moderate Arminians to their 
rigid Arminian brethren, to check rashness and recommend meekness, 
moderation, and love ? Might not the Calvinist ministers who patronise 
the doctrines of grace display also the doctrines of justice, and open 
their pulpits to those Arminian ministers who do it with caution ? And 
might not the Arminian ministers, who patronise the doctrines of justice, 
make more of the doctrines of grace, preach as nearly as they can like 
the judicious Calvinists, admit them into their pulpits, and rejoice at 
every opportunity of showing them their esteem and confidence ? Might 
not such moderate Calvinists and Arminians as live in the same towns, 
have from time to time a general sacrament, and invite one another to 
it, to cement brotherly love by publicly confessing the same Christ, by 
jointly taking Him for their common head, and by acknowledging one 
another as fellow- members of His mystical body ? 

" The sin of the want of union with our pious Calvinian or Arminian 
brethren is attended with peculiar aggravations. We are not only 
fellow-creatures, but fellow- subjects, fellow-Christians, fellow-Protes- 
tants, and fellow-sufferers, in reputation at least, for maintaining the 
capital doctrines of salvation by faith in Christ, and of regeneration by 
the Spirit of God. How absurd is it for persons, who thus share in the 
reproach, patience, and kingdom of Christ, to embitter each other's 
comforts, and add to the load of contempt, which the men of the world 
cast upon them ! Let Pagans, Mahometans, Jews, Papists, and Deists 
do this work. We may reasonably expect it from them. But for such 
Calvinists and Arminians as the world lumps together under the name 
of Methodists, on account of their peculiar profession of godliness, — 
for such companions in tribulation to 'bite and devour' each other is 
highly unreasonable and peculiarly scandalous." 

In such a spirit did the Arminian polemic address his 
Calvinian opponents. The following is extracted from his 
concluding remarks : — 

" God is my record how greatly I long after you all in the bowels of 
Jesus Christ, in whom there is neither Greek nor Jew, neither bond nor 
free, neither Calvinist nor Arminian, but Christ is all in all. Grant me 
my humble, perhaps my dying request, reject not my plea for peace. 
If it be not strong, it is earnest ; for, considering my bodily weakness, 
I write it at the hazard of my life : cmimamque in vulnere ftono. 

" But why should I drop a hint about so insignificant a life, when I 
can move you to accept of terms of reconciliation by the life and death, 
by the resurrection and ascension, of our Lord Jesus Christ. I recall 
the frivolous hint ; and, by the unknown agonies of Him whom you love, 
by His second coming, and by our gathering together unto Him, I beseech 
you, put on, as the Protestant ' elect of God, bowels of mercies, kindness, 



382 



Wesley 1 s Designated Successor. 



[1777- 



humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering, forbearing one another, 
and forgiving one another ; even as Christ loved and forgave you, so do 
ye.' Instead of absurdly charging one another with heresy, embrace 
one another, and triumph together in Christ. Bless God, ye Arminians, 
for raising such men as the pious Calvinists, to make a firm stand 
against Pharisaic delusions, and to maintain, with you, the doctrine of 
man's fallen state, and of God's partial grace, which the Pelagians 
attack with all their might. And, ye Calvinists, rejoice that heaven 
has raised you such allies as the godly Arminians, to oppose Manichean 
delusions, and to contend for the doctrines of holiness and justice, which 
the Antinomians seem sworn to destroy. Pharisaism will never yield 
but to the power of Bible-Calvinism and the doctrines of grace. Nor 
can Antinomianism be conquered without the help of Bible-Arminianism 
and the doctrines of justice. When Pharisaism and Antinomianism 
shall be destroyed, the Church will be sanctified, and ready to be pre- 
sented to Christ a glorious Church, ' not having spot, or wrinkle, or any 
such thing.' Then shall we sing with truth what we now sing without 
propriety, — 

" 'Love, like death, has all destroy'd, 
Render' d all distinctions void ; 
Names, and sects, and parties fall, 
Thou, O Christ, art all in all.' " 

Nothing more need be said respecting Fletcher's praise- 
worthy effort to put an end to the contentions then so 
rampant. No doubt, his object, to some extent, was realized ; 
but, for many a long year afterwards, not a few of the Cal- 
vinists and Arminians bore a striking resemblance to the 
ancient Jews and Samaritans. The}" worshipped the same 
God, but did not love each other. 

Fletcher spent four months, from December 16, 1776, to 
April 16, 1777, in the hospitable home of his Methodist 
friends, Mr. and Mrs. Charles Greenwood, at Stoke Newing- 
ton ; and never did he forget their remarkable kindness to 
him. Here he wrote a long pastoral letter to his parish* 
ioners on December 28, 1776 ; and, sixteen days afterwards, 
another, from which the following extracts are taken : — 

" Newington, Janztary 13, 1777. 
" My Dear Companions in Tribulation,— All the children of God 
I love ; but, of all the children of God, none have so great a right to my 
love as you. Your stated or occasional attendance on my poor ministry, 
as well as the bonds of neighbourhood, and the many happy hours I 
have spent with you before the throne of grace, endear you peculiarly 
to me. 



age 47.] Fletcher s Letter to his Parishioners. 383 



"With tears of grateful joy, I recollect the awful moments when we 
have bound ourselves to stand to our baptismal vow : to renounce all 
sin, to believe all the articles of the Christian faith, and to keep God's 
commandments to the end of our life. Asking pardon of God for not 
keeping that vow better, I determine, with new courage and delight, to 
love our Covenant God, 1 Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, with all my 
mind, heart, and strength ; with all the powers of my understanding, 
will, and affections. 

" In my weak state of health, I find much comfort from my relation to 
my Cove7iant God: I mean (1) My clear, explicit knowledge of the 
Father as my Creator and Father ; who so loved the world, you and me, # 
as to give His only-begotten Son, that we should not perish, but have 
everlasting life. (2) I mean my relation to the adorable Person, who, 
with the strength of His Godhead, and the strength of His pure manhood, 
took away my sin. O how my soul exults in that dear Mediator ! O the 
comfort of cleaving to Christ by faith, and of finding Christ is our all 
in all ! 

" I sometimes feel a desire of being buried where you are buried, and 
of having my bones lie in a common earthen bed with yours ; but I soon 
resign that wish, and exult in thinking that, whatever distance there 
may be between our graves, we can now bury our sins, cares, doubts, 
and fears, in the one grave of our divine Saviour. If I, your poor un- 
worthy shepherd, am smitten, be not scattered ; but rather be more 
closely gathered unto Christ, and keep near each other in faith and 
love, till you all receive our second Comforter and Advocate, the Holy 
Ghost, the third Person in our Covenant God. He is with you ; but, if 
you plead the promise of the Father, 'which,' says Christ, 'you have 
heard of me, He will be in you.' He will fill your souls with His light, 
love, and glory, according to that verse, which we have so often sung 
together, — 

" ' Refining fire, go through my heart, 
Illuminate my soul, 
Scatter thy life through every part, 
And sanctify the whole.' 

"This indwelling of the Comforter perfects the mystery of sanctifi- 
cation in the believer's soul. This is the highest blessing of the Chris- 
tian covenant on earth. Rejoicing in God our Creator, in God our 
Redeemer, let us look for the full comfort of God our Sanctifier. So 
shall we live and die in the faith, going on from faith to faith, from 
strength to strength, from comfort to comfort, till Christ is all in all' 
to us all. 

" I earnestly recommend to you my dear brother Greaves. Show him 
all the love you have shown to me, and, if possible, show him more, 
who is so much more deserving." 2 

1 Wesley had held, in London, the usual "Covenant Service," on 
Wednesday, January 1st. Probably, Fletcher had attended it, and, 
perhaps, taken part in it. 
Letters, 1791 , p. 30. 



3^4 



Wesley* s Designated Successor. 



[1777- 



The letter from which these extracts are taken was for- 
warded to the care of Mr. Wase, who, probably, was a 
Methodist Local Preacher. Mr. Wase wished to be em- 
ployed by the Church of England in America. Fletcher 
disapproved of this. Hence the following to Mr. Wase, 
written on the same day as the pastoral letter to the parish- 
ioners of Madeley. In fact, the pastoral letter was appended 
to it. 

" Newington, January T3, 1777. 

" My Dear Brother, — I am two letters in your debt. I would have 
answered them before now, but, venturing to ride out in the frost, the 
air was too sharp for my weak lungs, and opened my wounds, which 
has thrown me back again. 

" I am glad to see, by your last, that you take up your shield again. 
You will never prove a gainer by casting it away. Voluntary humility, 
despondency, or even a defeat, should never make you give up your 
confidence. 

" Take no hasty steps about removing. Your family and estate seem 
to me to tie you where you are, unless you have a very striking call to 
remove. You must not be above being employed in a little way. The 
great Mr. Grimshaw " (of Haworth) " was not above walking some miles 
to preach to seven or eight persons ; and what are we when compared 
to him ? Our neighbours will want you more when Mr. Greaves and 
I are gone. In the meantime, grow in meek, humble, patient, and 
resigned love ; and your temper, person, and labours will be more 
acceptable to all around you. I saw last week a gentleman from 
America, who said, all the church-livings there are in the gift of the 
Governor ; and those who get them are brought up at the American 
Colleges, and come over for ordination to the Bishop of London. Sup- 
posing the peace were made, and missionaries were wanted, you might 
be employed in America ; but of the latter I see little prospect ; and 
you need not seek trials beyond the seas, seeing yours at home are as 
much as you can stand under. 

" I have many things to say to you about your soul ; but you will find 
the substance of them in two of Mr. Wesley's sermons, the one entitled, 
'The Devices of Satan,' and the other, 'The Repentance of Believers.' 
I wish you would read one of them every day, till you have reaped all 
the benefit that can be got from them. Nor eat your morsel alone, but 
let all be benefited by the contents. 

"When you meet with our serious friends at Broseley, ^Madeley, 
Madeley Wood, the Dale, Dawley-Green, Wheater, Aston, Sheriff- 
Hales, and the two Banks, give my kindest love to them, and read 
them the following scrawl. 1 

1 The Pastoral Letter already mentioned. The places here named 
were, probably, Fletcher's Methodist Circuit, in each of which Metho- 
dist Societies had been formed. 



Age 47-1 Letter to Rev. Vincent Perronet. 



" My kind love to Mrs. Wase, and all your and my friends by name. 
Thank Michael Onions, and I. Owen ; I shall answer their letters when 
I can, if God spare me. 

' ' Your affectionate brother, 

"J. Fletcher." 1 

The good " Archbishop of Methodism," the Rev. Vincent 
Perronet, Vicar of Shoreham, Kent, and his noble daughter, 
invited Fletcher to visit them ; to whom Fletcher replied in 
the two following letters : — 

" Newixgtox, Ja?inary 19, 1777. 

•■Dear Father ix Christ, — I beg you to accept my multiplied 
thanks for your repeated favours. You have twice entertained me, a 
worthless stranger ; and, not yet tired of the burden, you again kindly 
invite me to share in the comforts of your house and family. Kind Pro- 
vidence leaves me no room, at present, to hang a third burden upon 
you. The good air and accommodations here, and the nearness to a 
variety of helps, joined to the kindness of my friends and the weakness 
of my body, forbid me to remove at present. God reward vour labour 
of love and fatherly offers ! Should the Lord raise me up, I shall be 
better able to reap the benefit of your instructions, a pleasure which 
I promise myself some time, if the Lord pleases. 

"I have of late thought much upon a method of reconciling the 
Calvinists and Arminians. I have seen some Calvinian ministers, who 
seem inclined to a plan of pacification. I wish I had strength enough 
to draw the sketch of it for you. I think the thing is by no means 
impracticable, if we would but look one another in the face, and pull 
together at the feet of Him ' who makes men to be of one mind in a 
house,' and who once made all believers to be of one soul in the Church. 
Let us pray, hope, wait, and be ready to promote the blessing of recon- 
ciliation ; in which none could be more glad to second you, than, 
honoured and dear Sir, your affectionate, obliged son in the Gospel, 

"J. Fletcher. 

In another letter, soon to be introduced, it will be seen 
that, among the " Calvinian ministers/'' whom Fletcher had 
seen, were the Rev. Walter Shirley, the Rev. Rowland Hill, 
and the Rev. Dr. Peckwell. 

In his letter to Miss Perronet, Fletcher dwells upon the 
great truth which then filled his mind and heart, and which 
was the chief topic of his conversation with his friends, — the 



1 Letters, 1-91, p. 23 ; and Wesley an Methodist Magazine, 1846, 
p. 141. 

2 Letters, 1791, p. 239. 



386 Wesley 9 s Designated Successor. 



mission of the Spirit, and His sanctifying work. It was 
written on the same day as the letter to her father : — 

" Newington, January 19, 1777. 
" DEAR Madam, — I thank you for your care and kind nursing of me 
when at Shoreham ; and, especially, for the few lines with which you 
have favoured me. They are so much the more agreeable to me, as 
they treat of the one thing needful for the recovery of our souls, — ' the 
spirit of power, of love, and of a sound mind; ' together with our need of 
it, and the grand promise that this need shall be abundantly supplied, — 
supplied by an outpouring of that ' Spirit of life in Christ Jesus, which 
makes us free from the law of sin and death.' May we hunger and 
thirst after righteousness in the Holy Ghost, and we shall be filled ! 
May we so come to our first Paraclete, Advocate, and Comforter, as to 
receive the Second, as an indwelling and overflowing fountain of light, 
life, and love ! 

" I trust my view of this mystery is scriptural. The Father so loved 
the world as to give us the first Advocate, Paraclete, and Comforter, 
whom we love and receive as our Redeemer. The first Advocate has 
told us, it was expedient that He should leave us, because, in that case, 
He would send another Advocate, Paraclete, or Comforter, to abide with 
us, and be in us for ever, as our Sanctifier, our Urim and Thummim, 
our lights and perfections , our oracle and guide. This is the grand 
promise to Christians, — called the promise of the Father, and brought 
by the Son. O may it be sealed on our hearts by the Spirit of promise / 
May we ever cry — 

" ' Seal thou our breasts, and let us wear 
That pledge of love for ever there ! ' 

" Then shall we be filled with pure, perfect love ; for the love of the 
Spirit perfects that of the Father and Son, and accomplishes the mystery 
of God in the believing soul. 

" Come then, let us look for it ; this great salvation draws nigh. Let 
us thank God more thankfully, more joyfully, more humbly, more peni- 
tently, for Christ our first Comforter ; and, hanging on His word, let us 
ardently pray for the fulness of His Spirit, — for the indwelling of our 
second Comforter, who will lead us into all truth, all love, all power. 
Let us join the few who besiege the throne of grace, and not cease putting 
the Lord in remembrance, till He has again raised Himself a Pentecostal 
Church in the earth, — I mean a church of such believers as are all of 
one heart and one soul." 1 

Fletcher's friends were most ardently attached to him ; 
and no wonder that they were. The man seemed to be an 
incarnation of humble, loving piety. All, in his serious 



1 Letters, 1791 , p. 240. 



Age 47. J Fletcher Visited by his Friends. 



387 



illness, were eager to help him. Ten days after the date of 
his letters to Mr. and Miss Perronet, he wrote, as follows, to 
Mr. Ireland : — 

" Newington, January 29, 1777. 

" Thanks be to God, and to my dear friend, for favours upon favours, 
for undeserved love and the most endearing tokens of it ! 

" I have received your obliging letters, full of kind offers ; and your 
jar, full of excellent grapes. May God open to you the book of life, and 
seal upon your heart all the offers and promises it contains ! May the 
treasures of Christ's love, and all the fruits of the Spirit, be open to my 
dear friend, and unwearied benefactor ! 

"Last Sunday, Providence sent me Dr. Turner, who, under God, saved 
my life, twenty-three years ago, in a dangerous illness ; and I am inclined 
to try what his method will do. He orders me asses' milk, chicken, 
etc. ; forbids me riding, and recommends the greatest quietness. He 
prohibits the use of Bristol water ; advises some water of a purgative 
nature ; and tries to promote expectoration by a method that so far 
answers, though I spit by it more blood than before. 

"With respect to my soul, I find it good to be in the balance, — awfully 
weighed every day for life or death. I thank God, the latter has lost 
its sting, and endears to me the Prince of Life. But O ! I want Christ, 
my resurrection, to be a thousand times more dear to me ; and I doubt 
not He will be so, when I am filled with the Spirit of wisdom and reve- 
lation in the knowledge of Him. Let us wait for that glory, praising 
God for all we have received, and trusting Him for all we have not yet 
received. Let our faith do justice to His veracity; our hope to His 
goodness; and our love to all His perfections. It is good to trust in 
the Lord ; and His saints like well to hope in Him. 

"I am provided here with every necessary- and convenient blessing 
for my state. The great have done me the honour of calling,— Mr. 
Shirley, Mr. Rowland Hill, Mr. Peckwell, etc. 1 I exhort them to pro- 
mote peace in the Church, which they take kindly. Lady Huntingdon 
also has written me a kind letter. This world to me is now become a 
world of love. ' ' 2 

Madeley was the centre of a kind of Methodist circuit, 
which, however, had no Methodist meeting-house. Services 



1 Berridge, of Everton, also came to Fletcher at Stoke Newington. 
' They met and parted in the spirit of Christian love ; and I believe saw 
each other no more in the body." (The Works of the Rev. John 
Berridge, A.M. ; with a Memoir of his Life, by Rev. R. Whittingham, 
P. 63.) 

Another, who visited him, was Dr. Price, who, afterwards, said, " I 
was introduced to the company of a man, whose air and countenance 
bespoke him fitted rather for the society of angels, than for the conver- 
sation of men." (Cox's " Life of Fletcher," p. 114.) 

2 Letters, 1791, p. 242. 



3^8 



Wesley' s Designated Successor. 



[1777- 



were held in cottages ; chapels did not exist. In the midst 
of his affliction, Fletcher and his friends projected the building 
of one in Madeley Wood. 1 As will be seen in subsequent 
letters, the execution of the scheme brought upon him con- 
siderable anxiety. Robert Palmer was the builder, and the 
entire cost was £2g6 iys. including £i 4s. 2d. "paid 
for drink for the men with the teams," and £3 1 2S - P a ^ for 
" sixteen stones of malt, for drink for the workmen." 2 The, 
following letter, addressed to Mr. Wase, refers to this humble 
edifice : — 

" Newington, February 18, 1777. 

"My Dear Brother— My dear friend Ireland brought me, last 
week, Sir John Elliott, who is esteemed the greatest physician in London, 
in consumptive cases. He gave hopes of my recovery, upon using proper 
diet and means. I was bled yesterday for the third time. I calmly 
leave all to God, and use the means without trusting in them. Death 
has lost its sting. I know not what hurry of spirit is, or unbelieving 
fears, under my most terrifying symptoms. Glory be to God, for this 
unspeakable mercy ! Help me to praise Him for it. 

"With respect to our intended room, I beg Mr. Palmer, Mr. Lloyd, 
and yourself to consult about it, and that Mr. Palmer would contract 
for the whole. I shall contribute ,£100, including £\o I have had for it 
from Mr. Ireland, and £\o from Mr. Thornton." 3 

In other ways, Fletcher evinced his profound interest in 
the welfare of his Madeley friends. Mr. Greaves occupied 
his pulpit, and preached, with great acceptance, to his parish- 
ioners ; but Mr. Greaves was not a priest, and, therefore, 
was not qualified to administer the holy sacraments. To 
meet the case, Fletcher wrote as follows to the Bishop of 
Hereford : — 

" Stoke Newington, March 22, 1777. 
"My LORD, — It is near a year since I was taken ill with a cough, 
spitting of blood, and hectic fever. This complication of disorders 
obliged me to go to Bristol last summer, for the benefit of the waters ; 



1 The chapel was enlarged a short time before Fletcher's death in 
1785/ On the morning of the day when his friends began to hew the 
stones for the enlargement, he went to the quarry, and said, " First of 
all, let us pray." The workers knelt upon the rock; Fletcher prayed 
in a way that few besides himself could pray ; and then, till duty called 
him elsewhere, assisted in shaping the stones for the extension of the 
building. (Crowther's " Portraiture of Methodism," p. 96.) 

2 MS. in Fletcher's own handwriting. 

3 Letters, 1791, p. 24. 



Age 47-1 Fletcher's Letter to his Bishop. 



389 



and it now detains me here, where I stay on account of the greater 
mildness of the climate, and the help I can have from the London 
physicians, who, as well as those of Bristol, absolutely forbid me doing 
duty. 

" It is with great difficulty that I have got my church properly served. 
My chief assistant has been Mr. Greaves, a young clergyman of the 
next diocese, who is only in deacon's orders, and who, considering my 
weak state of health, has kindly left his curacy to oblige and help me. 
I give him a title, and do humbly recommend him to your lordship, 
begging you would admit him to the holy order of priest ; without which 
he cannot properly supply my church, my parishioners having always 
been used to a monthly sacrament, and dying people, in so populous a 
part of the diocese, frequently wanting to have the ordinance adminis- 
tered to them. 

" I am sorry to be obliged to trouble your lordship on this occasion ; 
but hope, my lord, you will not deny me a favour which few clergymen 
in your lordship's diocese can want as much as your lordship's dutiful 
son and obedient servant, 

"John Fletcher. ' J 1 

With this letter, Fletcher sent the following certificate : — ■ 

" To the Right Reverend Father in God, James Lord Bishop of 
Hereford. 

" These are to certify to your lordship that I, John Fletcher, Vicar of 
Madeley, in the county of Salop and your lordship's diocese of Hereford, 
do hereby nominate and appoint Alexander Benjamin Greaves, late 
Curate of Glossop, in Derbyshire, to perform the office of a Curate in 
my church of Madeley aforesaid ; and do promise to allow him the 
yearly sum of £\2 for his maintenance in the same ; and to continue 
him to officiate in my said church until he shall be otherwise provided 
of some ecclesiastical preferment, unless, by fault by him committed, 
he shall be lawfully removed from the same. And I hereby solemnly 
declare that I do not fraudulently give this certificate to entitle the said 
Alexander Benjamin Greaves to receive Holy Orders, but with a real 
intention to employ him in my said church, according to what is before 
expressed. 

" Witness my hand this twenty-second day of March, in the year of 
our Lord 1777, 

"John Fletcher." 2 

The Perronet family at Shoreham dearly loved poor 
Fletcher. He had been their guest, and they had seen his 
spirit. Damaris Perronet was occasionally one of his corre- 
spondents; and William Perronet was now his loving medical 



1 Unpublished MS. 

2 Ibid. 



390 Wesley s Designated Successor. [1777. 



attendant. The saintly Charles Perronet had died in the 
month of August, 1776, but was most tenderly remembered 
by all who knew him. To Miss Perronet, Fletcher now 
wrote as follows : — 

"Newington, Afiril 21, 1777. 
"My Dear Friend, — A thousand thanks to you for your kind, 
comfortable lines. The prospect of going to see Jesus and His glorified 
members, and among them your dear departed brother, my now ever- 
living friend, is enough to make me quietly and joyfully submit to 
leave all my Shoreham friends, and all the excellent ones of the earth. 
But why do I talk of leaving any of Christ's members by going to be 
more intimately united to the Head ? 

" 'We all are one who Him receive, 
And each with each agree ; 
In Him the One, the truth we live, 
Blest fioint of unity ! ' 

" A point this Which fills heaven and earth, which runs through time 
and eternity. In it sickness is lost in health, and death in life. There 
let us ever meet. 

" I cannot tell you how much I am obliged to your dear brother for 
all his kind brotherly attendance as a physician. He has given me his 
time, his long walks, his remedies. He has brought me Dr. Turner 
several times, and will not allow me to reimburse his expenses. Help 
me to thank him for all his profusion of love, for I cannot sufficiently do 
it myself. 

" My duty to your father ; I throw myself in spirit at his feet and ask 
his blessing, and an interest in his prayers. Tell him that the Lord is 
gracious to me ; does not suffer the enemy to disturb my peace ; and 
gives me, in prospect, the victory over death. Absolute resignation to 
the Divine will baffles a thousand temptations, and confidejice in our 
Saviour carries us sweetly through a thousand trials." 1 

The time of Fletcher's happy sojourn with Mr. and Mrs. 
Greenwood at Stoke Newington was now ended. One of 
the family wrote : — 

"When he first came, he was, by Dr. Fothergill's advice, under the 
strictest observance of two things — rest and silence. These, together 
with a milk diet, were supposed to be the only probable means of his 
recovery. In consequence of these directions, he spoke exceeding little. 
If ever he spoke more than usual, it did not fail to increase his spitting 
of blood, of which indeed he was seldom quite clear, although it was 
not violent. Therefore, a great part of his time was spent in being read 
to ; but it was not possible to restrain him altogether from speaking. 



1 Letters, 1 79 1 , p. 246. 



Age 47-1 Fletcher's Sojourn at Stoke Newington, 391 



His natural vivacity, with his intense love of Jesus, impelled him to 
speak ; but on being reminded of his rule, with a cheerful smile he was 
all submission, consenting by signs only to stir up those about him to 
pray and praise. Those who had the privilege of observing his spirit 
and conduct, will not scruple to say that he was a living comment on 
his own account of Christian perfection. When he was able to converse, 
his favourite subject was, the promise of the Father, the gift of the 
Holy Ghost, including the rich peculiar blessing of union with the 
Father and the Son, mentioned in the prayer of our Lord, recorded in 
John xvii. ' We must not be content,' said he, ' to be only cleansed 
from sin; we must be filled with the Spirit.' One asking him, What 
was to be experienced in the full accomplishment of the promise of the 
Father? ' O,' said he, 'what shall I say? All the sweetness of the 
drawings of the Father, all the love of the Son, all the rich effusions of 
peace and joy in the Holy Ghost, more than ever can be expressed are 
comprehended here ! To attain it, the Spirit maketh intercession in the 
soul, like a God wrestling with a God.' 

" In some of these favoured moments of converse, he mentioned several 
circumstances, which, as none knew them but himself, would otherwise 
have been buried in oblivion. ' In the beginning,' said he, ' of my 
spiritual course, I heard the voice of God in an articulate, but inexpres- 
sibly awful sound, go through my soul in those words, If any man will 
be My disciple, let him deny himself. At a later date, I was favoured, 
like Moses, with a supernatural discovery of the glory of God, in an 
ineffable converse with Him, face to face ; so that whether I was then 
in the body, or out of the body, I cannot tell.' 

" On another occasion he said, 'About the time of my entering into 
the ministry, I one evening wandered into a wood, musing on the 
importance of the office I was going to undertake. I then began to 
pour out my soul in prayer ; when such a sense of the justice of God 
fell upon me, and such a sense of His displeasure at sin, as absorbed 
all my powers, and filled me with the agony of prayer for poor lost 
sinners. I continued therein till the dawn of day ; and I considered 
this as designed of God, to impress upon me more deeply the meaning 
of those solemn words, Therefore, knowing the terrors of the Lord, 
we persuade men.'' 

" One end of his retiring to Newington was that he might hide him- 
self from company ; but this design was in nowise answered, for company 
came from every side. He was continually visited by high and low, 
and by persons of various denominations ; one of whom being asked, 
when he went away, what he thought of Mr. Fletcher, said, ' I went to 
see a man who had one foot in the grave ; but I found a man who had 
one foot in heaven.' Among them who now visited him were several 
of his beloved and honoured opponents, to whom he confirmed his love 
by the most respectful and affectionate behaviour ; but he did not give 
up any part of the truth for which he had publicly contended ; although 
some, from whom one would have expected better things, did not scruple 
to affirm the contrary. 



392 



Wesley's Designated Successor. 



[i777. 



" It was not without some difficulty that Mr. Ireland prevailed upon 
him to sit for his picture. While the limner was drawing the outlines 
of it he was exhorting both him and all that were in the room not only 
to get the outlines drawn, but the colourings also of the image of Jesus 
on their hearts. He had a very remarkable facility in making allusions 
of this kind. To give an instance. Being ordered to be let blood, 
while his blood was running into the cup he took occasion to expatiate 
on the precious blood-shedding of the Lamb of God. And even when 
he did not speak at all, the seraphic spirit which beamed from his 
languid face, during those months of pain and weakness, was — 

" ' A lecture silent, yet of sovereign use.' " 

To this interesting account, probably written by Mr. 
Greenwood himself, Wesley adds : — 

"It is necessary to be observed that this facility of raising useful 
observations from the most trifling incidents, was one of those pecu- 
liarities in Mr. Fletcher which cannot be proposed to our imitation, 
[n him, it partly resulted from nature, and was partly a supernatural 
gift. But what was becoming and graceful in Mr. Fletcher, would be 
disgustful almost in any other." 1 

In the month of May, 1777, Fletcher left the hospitable 
home of Mr. Greenwood, at Stoke Newington, and went to 
his kind friend Mr. Ireland, at Brislington, near Bristol. In 
a letter dated "May 28, 1777," and addressed to his "very 
dear friends and benefactors Charles and Mary Greenwood," 
he wrote : — 

" I thought myself a little better last Sunday, but I have since spit 
more blood than I had done for weeks before. Glory be to God for 
every providence ! His will be done in me by health or sickness, by 
life or death ! All from Him is, and I trust will always be, welcome to 
your obliged pensioner, 

"J. Fletcher." 2 

To Michael Onions, one of the poor Methodists at Coal- 
brookdale, Fletcher wrote : — 

" Bath, July 8, 1777. 
"My Dear Brother, — I heartily thank you for your kind letter; 
and, by you, I desire to give my best thanks to the dear companions in 
tribulation whom you meet, and who so kindly remember me. If I 
should be- spared to minister to you again, my desire is to do it with 



1 Wesley's " Life of Fletcher." 

2 Letters, 1791, p. 248. 



Age 47.] Fletcher and Venn at Mr. Ireland's. 393 



more humility, zeal, diligence, and love. I hope to see you before the 
summer is ended, if it please God to give me strength for the journey. 
I am, in some respects, better than when I came here, and was enabled 
to bury a corpse last Sunday to oblige the minister of the parish ; but, 
whether occasioned by that little exertion or something else, bad symp- 
toms have returned since. Be that as it may, all is well ; for He, who 
does all things well, rules and over-rules all. 

' ' I have stood the heats we have had these two days better than I 
expected. I desire you will help me to bless the Author of all good for 
this and every other blessing of this life ; but above all for the lively 
hope of the next, and for Christ, our common hope, peace, joy, wisdom, 
righteousness, salvation, and all. Don't let me want the reviving 
cordial of hearing that you stand together firm in the faith. Look much 
at Jesus. Be much in private prayer. Forsake not the assembling of 
yourselves together in little companies, as well as in public. Walk in 
the sight of death and eternity, and ever pray for your affectionate, but 
unworthy minister, 

"J. Fletcher." 1 
" P.S. — Let none of your little companies want. If any do, you are 
welcome to my house. Take any part of the furniture there, and make 
use of it for their relief. And this shall be your full title for so doing, 
v> Witness my hand, John Fletcher." 2 

At this time, the Rev. Henry Venn was preaching in the 
chapel of the Countess of Huntingdon at Bath ; and Fletcher 
attended his ministry. Her ladyship wrote : — 

" Dear Mr. Venn has been preaching most successfully at Bath to 
overflowing congregations. Captain Scott and Mr. Fletcher have been 
there, and heard him preach in the chapel. The latter is far gone in a 
consumptive disorder, but is alive to God, and ripening fast for glory. 
We have exchanged several letters lately. As a last resource, he is to 
accompany Mr. Ireland to the south of France." 3 

When Mr. Venn had completed his services at Bath, he 
removed to the house of Mr. Ireland, at Brislington, where 
Fletcher was an honoured guest. Speaking of this visit, after 
Fletcher's death, to a brother clergyman, Venn remarked : — 

" Sir, Mr. Fletcher was a luminary — a luminary did I say ? He was 
a sun / 1 have known all the great men for these fifty years, but I have 
known none like him. I was intimately acquainted with him, and was 
under the same roof with him once for six weeks ; during which time I 



1 Letters, 1791 , p. 26. 

2 Wesley's " Life of Fletcher." 

3 •• Life and Times of the Countess of Huntingdon," vol. ii., p. ji. 



394 



Wesley s Designated Successor. 



[1777. 



never heard him say a single word which was not proper to be spoken, 
and which had not a tendency to minister grace to the hearers. One 
time, meeting him when he was very ill, I said, ' I am sorry to find you 
so ill.' Mr. Fletcher answered, with the greatest sweetness, ' Sorry, 
Sir, why are you sorry ? It is the chastisement of our heavenly Father, 
and I rejoice in it. I love the rod of my God, and rejoice therein as 
an expression of His love towards me.' Never," continued Mr. Venn, 
" did I hear Mr. Fletcher speak ill of any one. He would pray for those 
who walked disorderly, but he would not publish their faults." 1 

In a letter to the Rev. J. Stillingfleet, Mr. Venn remarked : — 

"I have been six weeks with the extraordinary and very excellent 
Mr. Fletcher. Oh that I might be like him ! I strictly observed him, 
but, I assure you, I never heard him speak anything but what was 
becoming a pastor of Christ's Church ;— not a single unbecoming word 
of himself, or of his antagonists, or of his friends. All his conversation 
tended to excite to greater love and thankfulness, for the benefits of 
redemption ; whilst his whole deportment breathed humility and love. 
We had many conversations. I told him, most freely, that I was shocked 
at many things in his 'Checks;' and pointed them out to him. We 
widely differ about the efficacy of Christ's death, the nature of justifica- 
tion, and the perfection of the saints ; but I believe we could live years 
together, as we did, in great love. He heard me twice ; and I was 
chaplain both morning and evening in the family, as his lungs would 
not suffer him to speak long or loud. He desired his love, by me, to 
all his Calvinistic brethren ; and begged their pardon for the asperity 
with which he had written. I am persuaded, as I told him, that, if he 
were to live with some of those whom he has been taught to conceive of 
as Antinomians, and hear them preach, he would be much more recon- 
ciled to them." 2 

Mr. Venn's last remarks were quite unneeded, for Fletcher 
always readily allowed that the hearts and lives of his oppo- 
nents were far better than their creed. 

At the close of the month of July, Wesley came to Bristol, 
to hold his annual conference with his preachers, and wrote : — 

" Wednesday, July 30. I spent an hour or two with Mr. Fletcher, 
restored to life in answer to many prayers. How many providential 
ends have been answered by his illness ! And perhaps still greater will 
be answered by his recovery." 3 

The " providential ends" meant by Wesley were, probably, 



1 " Life and Times of the Countess of Huntingdon," vol. ii., p. 72. 

2 " Life of Rev. Henry Venn, M.A.," p. 240. 

3 Wesley's Journal. 



47-1 Fletcher at Wesley s Bristol Conference. 



395 



the steps taken by Fletcher to bring to an end the Calvinian 
controversy, which had so greatly disturbed the Methodist 
movement during the last six years. 

Wesley's conference began on Tuesday, August 5, and 
ended on Friday, August 8. 1 It was short, but important. 
Its most interesting event, however, was the attendance of 
Fletcher. Thomas Taylor remarked, in his unpublished 
diary, — 

" On August 7, that great and good man Mr. Fletcher came into the 
conference. My eyes flowed, with tears at the sight of him. He spoke 
to us in a very respectful manner, and took a solemn farewell. Dear, 
good man ! I never saw so many tears shed in my life." 

Fletcher's valued friend, Joseph Benson, wrote : — 

"August 8. We have had an edifying conference. Mr. Fletcher's 
visit to-day and yesterday has been attended with a blessing. His 
appearance, his exhortations, and his prayers, broke most of our hearts, 
and filled us with shame and self-abasement, for our little improvement. ' ' 2 

In his " Life of Fletcher," Benson says : — 

"Mr. Fletcher happened to be passing by the door of the stable, 
belonging to our chapel in Broadmead, when I was lighting from my 
horse, 'on my arrival in Bristol.' I shall never forget with what a 
heavenly air, and sweet countenance, he instantly came to me in the 
stable, and, in a most solemn manner, put his hands upon my head, as 
if he had been ordaining me for the sacred office of the ministry, and 
prayed most fervently for and blessed me in the name of the Lord." 

By far the best account, however, of Fletcher in connection 
with the Bristol Conference, was written, not by one of 
Wesley's sturdy Itinerants, but by a young Welshman, who 
was present, for the purpose of offering himself for the 
Itinerant work. On account of his delicate health and feeble 
voice, the offer of David Lloyd was not accepted ; but, some 
years afterwards, he was ordained by Bishop Horsley, who 
gave him the living of Llanbister, which, even now, is not 
worth more than ^150 a year. The parsonage was a plain 
stone building, the door of which opened into the main room 
of the house, — its floor consisting of stone slabs, its fireplace 
wide, with benches in the corners, and the fire on the hearth 



1 Wesley's Journal. 

2 Macdonald's " life of Benson," p. 62. 



396 Wesley s Designated Successor. [1777. 



made principally of turf. On the same floor was another 
apartment, which served as kitchen, and above were two 
humble bed-rooms. " Such," wrote the late Rev. James Dixon, 
D.D., who, at the commencement of his ministry, was often 
the delighted guest of Mr. Lloyd, — " Such was the residence 
of a philosopher, a poet, and a divine, who seemed to enjoy, 
with unmixed contentment, the inheritance given him by 
Providence." Mr. Lloyd's wife was a good old Methodist ; 
their house was the home of Methodist itinerant preachers ; 
out of his small income, Mr. Lloyd subscribed ^10 a year 
to the Methodist and Church Missionary Societies; presented 
to each a donation of ^500 ; by his will, directed that the 
residue of his property should be equally divided between 
these two Societies ; and built a Methodist chapel in his 
parish, secured it to the Connexion by deed, and gave to it 
an endowment, " that Methodist preaching," as he said, 
" might continue in the parish as long as water should run." 1 
This remarkable man, for whom Dr. Dixon had the highest 
admiration, wrote as follows to the Rev. Dr. Adam Clarke: — 

" Llanbister, near Knighton, Radnorshire, 

" November 7, 1821. 
"Rev. and Dear Sir,— At the conference of the Methodist preachers, 
held at Bristol in the year 1777, an interview took place between the 
Rev. Mr. Wesley and the Rev. John Fletcher, of Madeley. I was both 
an eye- and ear-witness to the facts I here relate. The Rev. Mr. Fletcher 
had for a long time laboured under the effects of a deep-rooted con- 
sumption, which was then adjudged to be rapidly advancing to its final 
crisis. He was advised by the faculty to make the tour of the Continent, 
and to breathe his native air. He resided, at that time, with Mr. Ireland, 
a gentleman of known celebrity for the exercise of catholic love towards 
all such as possessed the essential attributes of great and good men. 
On the forenoon of a day, whenthe sitting of the Conference was drawing 
to a close, tidings announced the approach of Mr. Fletcher. As he 
entered the vestibule of the New Room, supported by Mr. Ireland, I 
can never forget the visible impulse of esteem which his venerable pre- 
sence excited in the house. The whole assembly stood up, as if moved 
by an electric shock. Mr. Wesley rose, ex cathedra, and advanced a 
few paces to receive his highly respected friend and reverend brother, 
whose visage seemed strongly to bode that he stood on the verge of the 
grave ; while his eyes, sparkling with seraphic love, indicated that he 
dwelt in the suburbs of heaven. In this his languid but happy state, 



Wesleyan Methodist Magazine. Sixpenny Edition, 1863, pp. 1-8. 



/ 



Age 47.] Fletcher at Wesley's Bristol CoJiference. 397 



he addressed the Conference, on their work and his own views, in a 
.strain of holy and pathetic eloquence, which no language of mine can 
adequately express. The influence of his spirit and pathos seemed to 
bear down all before it. I never saw such an instantaneous effect pro- 
duced in a religious assembly, either before or since. He had scarcely 
pronounced a dozen sentences before a hundred preachers, to speak in 
round numbers, were immersed in tears. Time can never efface from 
my mind the recollection and image of what I then felt and saw. Such 
a scene I never expect to witness again on this side eternity. Mr. 
Wesley, in order to relieve his languid friend from the fatigue and injury 
which might arise from a too long and arduous exertion of the lungs 
through much speaking, abruptly kneeled down at his side, the whole 
congress of preachers doing the same, while, in a concise and energetic 
manner, he prayed for Mr. Fletcher's restoration to health and a longer 
exercise of his ministerial labours. Mr. Wesley closed his prayer with 
the following prophetic promise, pronounced in his peculiar manner, 
and with a confidence and emphasis which seemed to thrill through 
every heart, ' HE SHALL NOT DIE, BUT LIVE, AND DECLARE THE WORKS 
OF the Lord.' The event verified the prediction. Mr. Fletcher lived 
for eight succeeding years, exerting all the zeal of a primitive missionary, 
and enjoying all the esteem of a holy patriarch. 

"I am, dear Sir, with high regard and esteem, your sincere friend 
and humble servant, 

"David Lloyd." 1 

Remembering the position which Fletcher had occupied, 
during the last six years, as the valiant and greatly abused 
expounder and defender of Wesley's Anti-Calvinian doctrines, 
and also bearing in mind the heavenly-mindedness in which 
Fletcher was now living, and, apparently, dying, there is no 
room to wonder at Mr. Lloyd's account, or to doubt of its 
being strictly accurate. Who can adequately conceive the 
influence of Fletcher's visit on the piety and usefulness of 
Wesley's conclave of Itinerant Preachers ? This is one of 
the secrets to be revealed hereafter. 

Another incident, belonging to this period, must be intro- 
duced. James Rogers was now a young Itinerant of five 
years' standing, but already possessed the confidence and 
esteem of Wesley, and afterwards had the honour of seeing 
Wesley die. No doubt, all of Wesley's Preachers, at this 
time assembled in Bristol, would have been delighted to be 
introduced to poor Fletcher at Brislington ; but, on account 
of his state of health, this was a privilege not many were 



' Life of Adam Clarke, LL.D.," by Rev. Samuel Dunn, p. 127. 



398 Wesley s Designated Successor. [1777. 



permitted to enjoy. James Rogers was one of the favoured 
few, and he shall be allowed, in his own artless way, to tell 
the story of his interview, and of an open-air sacramental 
service. During the previous year, he had been stationed 
in Edinburgh ; now he was appointed to Cornwall. He 
writes : — 

" In the year 1777, I was appointed to labour in the east of Cornwall. 
A journey of between four and five hundred miles was no small fatigue, 
in my then weak state of body ; but the Lord was with me. I took my 
appointment as from God, and set out in His name, and found sweet 
communion with Him in the way. 

" I had long desired to see that most eminently pious man of God, 
Mr. Fletcher ; and now an opportunity offered. Stopping at Bristol a 
few days, to rest myself and horse, I heard of his being at Mr. Ireland's, 
about three miles off, and, with two of my brethren, took a ride to see 
him. When we came there, he was returning from a ride, which he 
was advised by his physician to take every day. Dismounting from his 
horse, he came to us with arms spread open, and eyes lifted up to heaven. 
His apostolic appearance, with the whole of his deportment, greatly 
affected me. The first words he spoke, while yet standing in the stable 
by his horse, were a part of the sixteenth chapter of St. John's Gospel. 
He pointed out from thence the descent of the Holy Ghost, as the great 
promise of the Father, and the privilege of all New Testament believers, 
in a manner I had never heard before. My soul was dissolved into 
tenderness, and became as melting wax before the fire. 

"As an invidious report had been spread, that he had renounced what 
he had lately written against Calvinism, I took the liberty to mention 
the report, and asked him what he thought had given rise to it ? He 
replied, he could not tell, except that he had refrained from speaking 
on controverted points since he came to Mr. Ireland's : partly, by reason 
of the poor state of his health ; and partly, because he did not wish to 
grieve his kind friend, by making his house a field of controversy ; but 
he assured us, he had not seen cause to repent of what he had written 
in defence of the Rev. Mr. Wesley's ' Minutes.' And, though he 
believed his close application to study had been the means of reducing 
his body to the state in which we then saw it, yet, he said, if he fell a 
victim, it was in a good cause. 

"After a little conversation upon his darling topic, the tmivei'sal love 
of God in Christ Jesus, we were about to take our leave, when Mr. 
Ireland sent his footman into the yard with a bottle of red wine, and 
some slices of bread upon a waiter. We all uncovered our heads, while 
Mr. Fletcher craved a blessing upon the same ; which he had no sooner 
done, than he handed first the bread to each, and, lifting up his eyes 
to heaven, pronounced these words, 'The body of our Lord Jesus Christ, 
which was given for thee, preserve thy body and soul unto everlasting 
life.' Afterwards, handing the wine, he repeated in like manner, 'The 



Age 47.] Letter to Rev. Vincent Perronet. 399 



blood of our Lord Jesus Christ,' etc. Such a sacrament I never had 
before. A sense of the Divine presence rested upon us all ; and we 
were melted into floods of tears. His worthy friend, Mr. Ireland, grieved 
to see him exhaust his little strength by so much speaking, took him 
by the arm, and almost forced him into the house; while he kept looking 
wistfully, and speaking to us, as long as we could see him. We then 
mounted our horses, and rode away. That hour more than repaid me 
for my whole journey from Edinburgh to Cornwall." 1 

The scene so simply described is worthy of being painted 
by an artistic Methodist. 

About the same time, Fletcher wrote as follows to th-e 
venerable Vicar of Shoreham, the Rev. Vincent Perronet. 

" 1777, September 6. My very dear father, — I humbly thank you for 
the honour and consolation of your two kind letters. Your vouchsafing 
to remember a poor, unprofitable worm, is to me a sure token that my 
heavenly Father remembers me. He is God, and therefore I am not 
consumed. He is a merciful, all-gracious God, and therefore I am 
blessed with sympathizing friends and gracious helpers on all sides. 
O Sir ! if in this disordered, imperfect state of the Church, I meet with 
so much kindness, what shall I not meet with, when the millennium 
you pray for shall begin ? O that the happy thought, the glorious hope 
may animate me to perfect holiness in the fear of God ; that I may be 
accounted worthy to escape the terrible judgments, which will make 
way for that happy state of things, and that I may have a part in the 
first resurrection, if I am numbered among the dead before that happy 
period begin ! 

" ' Oh ! for a firm and lasting faith, 
To credit all the Almighty saith ! 
To embrace the promise of His Son, 
And call that glorious rest our own ! ' 

"We are saved by hope at this time; but hope that is seen is not 
hope. Let us abound, then, in hope through the power of the Holy 
Ghost : so shall we antedate the millennium, take the kingdom, and 
enjoy beforehand the rest, which remains for the people of God. 

' ' One of my parishioners brought a horse, last week, to carry me home ; 
and desired to walk by my side all the way. By the advice of your dear 
son, Mr. William Perronet, who still continues to bestow upon me all 
the help I could expect from the most loving brother, I sent the man 
back. I thank God, I am a little stronger than when I came here. I 
kiss the rod, lean on the staff, and wait the end. I yesterday saw a 
physician, who told me my case is not yet an absolutely lost case. But 
the prospect of languishing two or three years longer, a burden to every - 



1 "Experience and Labours of James Rogers," written by himself, 
1796, p. 22. 



400 Wesley's Designated Successor. [1777- 



body, a help to none, would be very painful, if the will of God and the 
covenant of life in Christ Jesus did not sanctify all circumstances, and 
dispel every gloom. I remember, with grateful joy, the happy days I 
spent at Shoreham : Tecum vivere amem ; tecum obeam lubens. But, 
what is better still, I shall live with the Lord and with you for ever and 
ever. 

" Your obliged servant and affectionate son, 

" J. Fletcher." 1 

The next letter has not before been published. It was 
addressed to the lady who afterwards became his wife : — 

" Bristol, October 20, 1777. 

" DEAR Madam, — The hope of thanking you in person for the favour 
of your friendly directions, as well as bodily weakness, has prevented 
me sending you a letter full of grateful acknowledgments. But, as 
Providence may postpone your intended journey to Bath, and hasten 
mine into Spain, or into eternity, I trouble you with these lines to testify 
how indebted I am to you for thinking of admitting me into the number 
of your patients. I have not tried your remedy yet, because the gentle- 
men of the faculty, who have attended me here, say, that, though it 
might be very good for persons of a cold, phlegmatic habit of body, it 
is improper for those who are, like myself, of a dry, bilious habit. I 
have taken the bark and rhubarb for some days, and I thought yesterday 
that the former medicine had removed the spitting of blood ; but to-night 
it has again made its appearance. However, I think I can speak a 
little better, though I cannot bear the motion of a horse so well as I 
could two months ago. 

"All is well that comes from our heavenly Friend and Physician. 
Shall we receive the sweet at His hands, and not the bitter? Is not 
His every dispensation of providence and grace to be received with 
thankfulness ? I would not get well against His will for all the world, 
and for what I esteem more than all the world, — the pleasure of seeing 
those whom He has chosen out of the world. If Providence parts us on 
earth, we shall meet in heaven. 

"I have had it, however, in my thoughts to antedate that pleasure 
with respect to you and your devoted family : 2 I was once going to take 
the pen to ask your leave to enter and die under your friendly roof ; but 
the fear of troubling you and taking a step contrary to the leadings of. 
Providence, made me decline. If you have not a poor Lazarus at your 
door to trouble you, you have Lazarus' s Friend in your sight and heart, 
to comfort and save you. May He, every day, appear more glorious in 
your sight, and may you, every hour, drink deeper into His Spirit ! 

" My Christian love waits upon Mrs. Crosby, Miss Hurrel, and Miss 
Ritchie. 3 I hope the Lord binds you each day closer to Himself and to 



1 Benson's "Life of Fletcher." 

2 Miss Bosanquet kept an orphanage, wholly at her own expense. 

3 Three grand old Methodists, and, at least, one of them a preacheress. 



Age 48.] Original Letter to Miss Bosanquet. 401 



each other, and enables you to see and experience the glory of the 
promise made to the daughters and handmaids, as well as to the sons 
and servants of the Lord. Oh, what a day when we shall all be so 
filled with power from on high, as to go forth and prophesy, and water 
the Lord's drooping plants and barren parched garden with rivers of 
living water flowing from our own souls ; and when an ardent fire of 
Divine love will make us put our candle to the chaff of sin, and fire all 
the harvests and tents of the Laodiceans ! . As Abraham saw the day 
of Christ, our first Comforter , and was glad, so I see the day of the 
Spirit, our other Comforter , and rejoice. May you live to enjoy it ! 
May you and yours hasten it by the pleadings of mighty prayer ! To 
thank the Father for the unspeakable gift of His Son ; and to look to 
both for the fulness of that other gift of God, for that ivell of living 
water which Christ offered to the woman of Samaria, is a blessed work, 
in which I beg you would assist your obliged brother, 

" J. Fletcher. 

" Miss Bosanquet, 
"At Cross Hall, 
" Near Leads, 
"Yorkshire, by Manchester." 
Bristol postmark. 

In another letter to Miss Bosanquet, written about the 
same time, he remarked : — 

" I calmly wait, in unshaken resignation, for the full salvation of God: 
ready to trust Him, to venture on His faithful love and on the sure 
mercies of David, either at midnight, noonday, or cock-crowing : for 
my time is in His hand, and His time is best, and shall be my time. 
Death has lost his sting ; and I know not what hurry of spirits is, or 
what are unbelieving fears, under the most trying circumstances. Thanks 
be to God for His unspeakable gift." 1 

At the same period, Fletcher commenced a correspond- 
ence with another distinguished lady, the Right Hon. Lady 
Mary Fitzgerald, daughter of the Earl of Bristol, and aunt 
of Lord Liverpool. She had been married to George 
Fitzgerald, Esq., and, for about twelve years past, had been 
an exemplary member of the Methodist Society. The friend- 
ship between her and Wesley was great, and Wesley visited 
her only nine days before his death. In 181 5, at the age of 
ninety, her clothing caught fire, and she died, her last words 
being, " Come, Lord Jesus, my blessed Redeemer, come and 
receive my spirit !" In conformity with a clause in her will, 



Mrs. Fletcher's "Letter to Mons. H. L. De la Flechere, " 1786, p. 35. 




402 



Wesley* s Designated Successor. 



[1777. 



her remains were interred in the burial ground at the front 
of City Road Chapel ; and, in memory of her, there is a 
plain white marble tablet in that sacred edifice. 1 The fol- 
lowing is an extract from Fletcher's letter to this Methodist 
lady : — 

" October 21, 1777. 

"Honoured and Dear Madam, — The honour of your Christian 
letter humbles me; and the idea of your taking half-a-dozen steps, 
much more that of your taking a journey, to consult so mean a creature 
as myself, lays me in the dust. My brothers and sisters invite me once 
more to breathe my native air, and the physicians recommend to me a 
journey to the continent. If I go, I shall probably pass through London, 
and, in that case, I could have the honour of waiting upon you. I say, 
probably, because I shall have to accompany my friend and a serious 
family, who intend to spend the winter in the south of France, or in 
Spain ; and I do not yet know whether they design to embark at Dover, 
or at some port in the west of England. 

" You have been afflicted as well as myself. May our maladies yield 
the peaceable fruits of righteousness, complete deadness to the world, 
and increased faith in the mercy, love, and power of Him, who supports 
under the greatest trials, and can make our extremity of weakness an 
opportunity of displaying the greatness of His power ! 

"I have taken the bark for some days, and it seems to have been 
blessed to the removal of my spitting of blood. Time will decide whether 
it be a real removal, or only a suspension of that symptom. Either will 
prove a blessing, as His will is our health. To live singly to God, the 
best method is to desire it in meek?iess ; to spread the desire in quiet- 
C ness before Him who inspires it ; to offer Him now all we have and are, 
as we can ; and to open our mouth of expectation wide, that He may 
fill it with all His fulness, or that He may try our patience, and teach 
us to know our total helplessness. With respect to the weeping frame 
of repentance, and the joyous one of faith, they are both good alter- 
nately ; but the latter is the better of the two, because it enables us to 
do, and suffer, and praise, which honours Christ more. Both are 
happily mixed. May they be so in you, Madam, and in your unworthy 
and obliged servant, 

"J. Fletcher." 2 

To another lady, Mrs. Thornton, Fletcher wrote : — 

"I spend more time in giving my friends an account of my health, 
than the matter is worth. You will see by the enclosed, which I beg 
you to send to the post, when you have shown it to Mr. John and 
Charles Wesley, how their poor servant does. I am kept in sweet 



1 Stevenson's " City Road Chapel." 

2 Letters, 1791, p. 256. 



age 48.] Fletcher Preparing to leave Englayid. 403 



peace, and am looking for the triumphant joy of my Lord, and for the 
fulness expressed in these words, which sweetly filled the sleepless hours 
of last night, — 

" 1 Drawn — and redeem' d — and seal'd, 
I bless the One and Three ; 
With Father, Son, and Spirit fill' d 
To all eternity.' 

"With respect to my body, I sleep less, and spit more blood than 
I did when you were here, nor can I bear the least trot of an easy horse. 
If this continues many days, instead of thinking to go and see my 
friends on the continent, I shall turn my steps to my earthly home, to 
be ready to lay my bones in my churchyard. Two of my parishioners 
came to convey me safe home, and had persuaded me to go with them 
in a post-chaise ; but I had so bad a night before the day that I was to 
set out, that I gave it up. I have nothing to look at but Jesus and the 
grave. May I so look at them, as to live in my Resurrection and my 
life ; and die in all the meekness and holiness of my Lord and my all." 1 

Fletcher having decided to go to the continent, it became 
necessary to arrange monetary and other matters before he 
started. To two of his friends at Madeley, Mr. Thomas 
York and Mr. Daniel Edmunds, he wrote as follows : — 

"Bristol, November, 1777. 

" My Dear Friends, — The debt of gratitude I owe to a dying sister, 
who once took a long journey to see me, when I was ill in Germany, 
and whom I just stopped from coming, last winter, to Newington to 
nurse me, — the unanimous advice of the physicians whom I have con- 
sulted, — and the opportunity of travelling with serious friends, — have at 
last determined me to remove to a warmer climate. As it is very doubt- 
ful whether I shall be able to stand the journey ; and, if I do, whether 
I shall be able to come back to England ; and, if I come back, whether 
I shall be able to serve my church, it is right to make what provision 
I can to have it properly served while I live, and to secure some spiritual 
assistance to my serious parishioners when I shall die. 

"I have attempted to build a house in Madeley Wood, about the 
centre of my parish, where I should be glad the children might be taught 
to read and write in the day, and the grown-up people might hear the 
Word of God in the evening, when they can get an Evangelist to 
preach it to them ; and where the serious people might assemble for 
social worship when they have no teacher. The expense of that build- 
ing, and paying for the ground it stands upon, have involved me in 
some difficulties ; especially as my ill health has put on me the addi- 
tional expense of an assistant. 



Letters, 1791, pp. 249, 253. 



404 



Wesley s Designated Successor, 



[1777. 



" If I had strength, I would serve my church alone, board as cheaply 
as I could, and save what I was able to do from the produce of the 
living to clear the debt, and leave that little token of my love, free from 
encumbrances, to my parishioners. 

"But, as Providence orders things otherwise, I have another object, 
which is to secure a faithful minister to serve the church while I live. 
Providence has sent me dear Mr. Greaves, who loves the people, and is 
loved by them. I should be glad to make him comfortable ; and, as all 
the care of my flock, by my illness, devolves upon him, I would not 
hesitate for a moment to let him have all the profit of the living, if it 
were not for the debt contracted about the room. My difficulty lies, 
then, between what I owe to my fellow-labourer, and what I owe to my 
parishioners, whom I should be sorry to have burdened with a debt 
contracted for the room. 

" My agreement with Mr. Greaves was to allow him forty guineas a 
year, out of which I was to deduct twelve for his board ; but, as I 
cannot board him when I go abroad, I design to allow him, during my 
absence, £^0 a-year, together with the use of my house, furniture, 
garden, and my horse, if he chooses to keep one ; reserving the use of 
a room, and a stall in the stable, to entertain the preachers who help us 
in their Round : not doubting but that the serious people will gladly 
find them and their horses proper necessaries. 

" But I know so little what my income may be, that I am not sure it 
will yield Mr. Greaves ^50, after paying all the expenses of the living. 
Now I beg you will consult together, and see whether the Vicar's 
income, i.e., tithes, etc., etc., will discharge all the expenses of the living, 
and leave a residue sufficient to pay a stipend of ^50. I except the 
royalty, which I have appropriated to the expense of the Room. If it 
be, well ; if there be any surplus, let it be applied to the Room ; if there 
be anything short, then Mr. Greaves may have the whole, and take his 
chance in that respect, as it will be only taking the Vicar's chance; 
for I doubt if sometimes, after necessary charges defrayed, the Vicars 
have had a clear ^50. 

" I beg you will let me know how the balance of my account stands, 
that, some way or other, I may order it to be paid immediately ; for, if 
the balance is against me, I could not leave England comfortably 
without having settled the payment. A letter will settle this business 
as well as if twenty friends were at the trouble of taking a journey ; and 
talking is far worse for me than reading or writing. 

"Ten thousand pardons, my dear friends, for troubling you with this 
scrawl about worldly matters. I am quite tired with writing, but I 
cannot lay by my pen without desiring my best Christian love to all my 
dear companions in tribulation, and neighbours in Shropshire ; espe- 
cially to Mrs. York, Miss Simpson, Mrs. Harper, Mr. Scott, Winny 
Edmunds, and all enquiring friends. Thank Molly for her good manage- 
ment, and tell her I recommend her to our common Heavenly Master. 
If she wants to go to London, or to come to Bristol, I shall give her 
such a character as will help her to some good place. I heartily thank 



Age 48.] 



Farezvell Letters. 



405 



Daniel, both as churchwarden and as receiver and house- steward ; and 
I beg Mr. York to pay him a proper salary. 

"I am, in the best bonds, your affectionate neighbour, friend, and 
minister, J. Fletcher." 1 

A letter on small matters, so far as the reader is con- 
cerned ; but a letter unveiling Fletcher's heart, and exhibit- 
ing his perfect unworldliness. The following, extracted from 
a letter to Mr. William Wase, reveals other characteristics : — 

"Bristol, November, 1777. 

"My Dear Brother,— Go to Mrs. Cound, and tell her, I charge 
her, in the name of God, to give up the world, to set out with all speed 
for heaven, and to join the few about her who fear God. If she refuses, 
call again ; call weekly, if not daily, and warn her from me till she is 
ripe for glory. Tell the brethren at Broseley that I did my body an 
injury the last time I preached to them on the Green ; but, if they took 
the warning, I do not repine. Give my love to George Crannage ; tell 
him to make haste to Christ, and not to doze away his last days. 

" The physician has not yet given me up ; but, I bless God, I do not 
wait for his farewell, to give myself up to my God and Saviour. I write 
by stealth, as my friends here would have me forbear writing, and even 
talking ; but I will never part with my privilege of writing and shouting, 
' Thanks be to God who giveth us the victory ' over sin, death, and the 
grave 'through Jesus Christ.' To Him be glory for ever and ever ! 
Amen ! " 2 

To his congregation in Madeley Church, Fletcher wrote as 
follows : — 

" Bristol, November 26, 1777. 
" To the Brethren who hear the Word of God in the 
parish church of Madeley. 

"My Dear Brethren, — I thank you for the declaration of your 
affectionate remembrance, which you sent me by John Owen, the 
messenger of your brotherly love. 

"As various reasons prevent my coming to take leave of you in 
person, permit me to do it by letter. The hope of recovering a little 
strength, to serve you again in the Gospel, makes me take the advice of 
the physicians, who say that removing to a drier air and warmer climate 
may be of great service to my health. 

" I am more and more persuaded that I have not declared unto you 
cunningly devised fables, and that the Gospel I have had the honour 
of preaching, though feebly, among you, is the power of God to 
salvation, to every one who believes it. 



1 Letters, 1791, p. 34. 

2 Ibid, p. 36. 



406 Wesley's Designated Successor. [1777. 



" Want of time does not permit me to give you more than the follow- 
ing directions. Have, every day, lower thoughts of yourselves, higher 
thoughts of Christ, kinder thoughts of your brethren, and more hopeful 
thoughts of all around you. Love to assemble in the great congregation ; 
but, above all, love to pray to your Father in secret ; consider your 
Saviour ; and listen for your Sanctifier. Wait all day long for His 
glorious appearing within you ; and, when you are together, by suitable 
prayers, proper hymns, and enlivening exhortations, keep up your 
earnest expectation of His pardoning and sanctifying love. Let not a 
drop satisfy you ; desire an ocean. Do not eat your morsel by your- 
selves, like selfish, niggardly people, but be ready to share it with all. 
Let every one with whom you converse be the better for your con- 
versation. Be burning and shining lights wherever you are. Set the 
fire of divine love to the hellish stubble of sin. Be valiant for the truth. 
Be champions for love. Be sons of thunder against sin ; and sons of 
consolation towards humbled sinners. Be faithful to your God, your 
king, and your masters. Let not the good ways of God be blasphemed 
through any of you. 

"You have need of patience, as well as of faith and power. You 
must learn to suffer, as well as do the will of God. Think it not strange 
to pass through fiery trials. Let your faith be firm in a tempest. Let 
your hope in Christ be as a sure anchor cast within the veil ; and your 
patient love will soon outride the storm. God is the same merciful and 
faithful God, 'yesterday, to-day, and for ever.' Believe in His three- 
fold name. Rejoice in every degree of His great salvation. Triumph 
in hope of the glory which shall be revealed. Do not forget to be thankful 
for a cup of water ; much less for being out of hell, for the means of 
grace, the forgiveness of sins, the blood of Jesus, the communion of 
saints on earth, and the future glorification of saints in heaven. Strongly, 
heartily believe every Gospel truth, especially the latter part of the 
Apostles' Creed. Believe it till your faith becomes the substance of the 
eternal life you hope for ; and then, come life, come death, either or 
both will be welcome to you, as, through grace, I find they are 
to me. 

" If I am no more permitted to minister to you in the land of the 
living, I rejoice at the thought that I shall, perhaps, be allowed to 
accompany the angels, who, if you continue in the faith, will be com- 
missioned to carry your souls into Abraham's bosom. If our bodies do 
not moulder away in the same grave, our spirits shall be sweetly lost in 
the same sea of divine and brotherly love. I hope to see you again in 
the flesh ; but my sweetest and firmest hope is to meet you where there 
are no parting seas, no interposing mountains, no sickness, np death, 
no fear of loving too much, no shame for loving too little. 

"I earnestly recommend you to the pastoral care of the great 
Shepherd and Bishop of souls, to the brotherly care of one another, and 
to the ministerial care of my substitute. Should I be spared to come 
back, let me have the joy of finding you all of one heart and one soul ; 
continuing steadfast in the Apostles' doctrine, in fellowship one with 



Age 48.] 



Farewell Letters. 



407 



another, and in communion with our sin-pardoning and sin-abhorring 
God." 1 

Immediately after the date of this pastoral epistle, in 
company with Mr. Ireland, two of his daughters, and another 
family, Fletcher left Brislington for the south of France. 
During a halt at Reading, he wrote the following to the 
Rev. Vincent Perronet, the venerable vicar of Shoreham : — 

" Reading, December 2, 1777. 
" Honoured and Dear Sir, — I acknowledge, though late, the 
favour of your letter. I have given up the thought of going to my 
parish, and am now on the road to a warmer climate. The Lord may 
bless as much the change of air, as He has blessed the last remedy your 
son prescribed for me — I mean the bark. If I should mend a little, I 
would begin to have faith in your prophecy. In the meantime, let us 
have faith in Christ, more faith day by day, till all the sayings of Christ 
are verified to us and in us. Should I go to Geneva, I shall enquire 
after the Swiss friends of my dear benefactors at Shoreham, to whose 
prayers I humbly recommend myself and my dear fellow-travellers, one 
of whom, my little god- daughter, is but eight weeks old." 2 

At the same time, and on the same sheet, he wrote as 
follows to Miss Damaris Perronet : — 

" My Dear Friend, — I snatch a moment upon the road to acknow- 
ledge the favour of your letter, and to wish you joy in seeing the Lord 
is faithful in rewarding as well as punishing. I once met a gentleman, 
an infidel, abroad, who said, ' Men have no faith : if they believed that 
by forsaking houses, lands, and friends, they should receive a hundred- 
fold, they would instantly renounce all : for who would not carry all 
his money to the bank of heaven, to receive a hundredfold interest ? ' 
The Papists have made so bad a use of the doctrine of the rewardable- 
ness of works, that we dare neither preach it, nor hold it in a scriptural 
manner. For my part, I think that if it were properly received, it would 
make a great alteration in the professing world. You dare receive it ; 
try the mighty use of it ; and when you have fully experienced it, do 
not keep your light to yourself, but impart it to all within the reach 
of your tongue and pen. I am glad you see that every 7 reward, be- 
stowed upon a reprieved sinner, has free-grace for its foundation, and 
the blood of Christ for its mark. May the richest rewards of Divine 
grace be yours in consequence of the most exalted faithfulness ; and 
let me beseech you to pray that I may follow you, as you follow Christ, 
till our reward be full." 3 



1 Letters, 1791, p. 40. 

2 Benson's " Life of Fletcher." 

3 Methodist Magazine, 1804, p. 520. 



4o8 



Wesley 1 s Designated Successor. [1777. 



Thus did Fletcher leave England, reiterating one of the 
great truths that he had been explaining and defending 
during the last six years. On the next day after the date 
of his letter, he arrived at Stoke Newington. Wesley 
writes : — 

" Wednesday, December 3, 1777. I visited as many of the sick as I 
could in the north-east part of the town ; and spent the evening at 
Newington, with Mr. Fletcher, almost miraculously recovering from his 
consumption. On Thursday, December 4, he set out, with Mr. Ireland, 
for the south of France." 1 



1 Wesley's Journal. 



Age 48.] Journey to the South of France. 409 



CHAPTER XXL 

A LONG RETIREMENT. 
1778 — 1 78 1. 

WHEN the travellers arrived at Dover, Fletcher wrote as 
follows to his hospitable friends at Stoke Newington : — 

" Ten thousand blessings light upon the heads and hearts of my dear 
benefactors, Charles and Mary Greenwood ! May their quiet retreat at 
Newington become a Bethel to them ! Their poor pensioner travels on, 
though slowly, towards the grave. His journey to the sea seems to him 
to have hastened, rather than retarded, his progress to his old mother — 
Earth. May every Providential blast blow him nearer to the heavenly 
haven of his Saviour's breast; where he hopes to meet all his benefac- 
tors ! O, my dear friends, what shall I render ? What to Jesus ? what 
to you ? May He, who invites the heavy-laden, take upon Him all the 
burdens of kindness you have heaped on your Lazarus ! And may 
angels, when you die, find me in Abraham's bosom, and bring you into 
mine, that by all the kindness which may be shown in heaven, I may 
try to requite that you have shown to your obliged brother, 

" J. Fletcher." 1 

Leaving Calais on December 12, 1777, the travellers 
pursued their way to the South of France. Mr. Ireland thus 
described the journey : — 

" When we departed from Calais, the north wind was very high, and 
penetrated us even in the chaise. We put up at Bretuil, and the next 
day got to Abbeville, whence we were forced, by the miserable accom- 
modation we met with, to set out, though it was Sunday. Hitherto Mr. 
Fletcher and I had led the way, but now the other chaises got before 
us. Nine miles from Abbeville our axletree gave way through the hard 
frost, and we were left to the piercing cold on the side of a hill, without 
shelter. After waiting an hour and a half, we sent the axletree and 
wheels back to be repaired ; and, leaving the body of the chaise under 



Letters, 1791, p. 249. 



Wesley* s Designated Successor. 



[1778. 



a guard, procured another to carry us to the next town. On the 15th, 
our chaise arrived in good repair. The country was covered with snow, 
but travelling steadily forward, we reached Dijon on the 27th. During 
the whole journey, Mr. Fletcher showed marks of recovery. He bore 
both the fatigue and cold as well as the best of us. On the 31st, we put 
up at Lyons, and solemnly closed the year, bowing our knees before the 
throne, which indeed we did all together every day. January 4, 1778, 
we .left Lyons, and came on the 9th to Aix. Here we rest, the weather 
being exceedingly fine and warm. Mr. Fletcher walks out daily. He 
is now able to read and pray with us every morning and evening. He 
has no remains of his cough nor of the weakness in his breast. His 
natural colour is restored, and the sallowness quite gone. His appetite 
is good, and he takes a little wine." 

In another letter Mr. Ireland wrote : — 

" Soon after our arrival here, I rode out most days with my dear and 
valued friend. Now and then he complained of the uneasiness of the 
horse, and there were some remains of soreness in his breast ; but this 
soon went off. The beginning of February was warm, and the warmth, 
when he walked in the fields, relaxed him ; but when the wind got north 
or east, he was braced again. His appetite is good ; his complexion as 
healthy as it was eleven years ago. As his strength increases, he 
increases the length of his rides. Last Tuesday, he set out on a journey 
of a hundred and twelve miles. The first day he travelled forty miles 
without feeling any fatigue ; and the third day fifty-five. He bore the 
journey as well as I did ; and was as well and as active at the end of it 
as at the beginning. During the day, he cried out, ' Help me to praise 
the Lord for His goodness ; I never expected to see this day.' He 
accepted a pressing invitation to preach to the Protestants here ; and 
he fulfilled his engagement on Sunday morning, taking as his text, 
' Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith.' Both the French 
and English were greatly affected ; the word went to the hearts of both 
saints and sinners. His voice is now as good as ever it was ; and he 
has an earnest invitation to preach near Montpelier, where we are going- 
You would be astonished at the entreaties of pastors as well as people. 
He has received a letter from a minister in the Levine Mountains, who 
intends to come to Montpelier, sixty miles, to press him to go and 
preach to his flock. He purposes to spend the next summer in his own 
country, and the following winter in these parts." 1 

It was probably at this time that Fletcher and Mr. Ireland 
made a tour through Italy, and visited Rome, concerning 
which visit Wesley writes : — 

" While he was at Rome, as Mr. Ireland and he were one day going 



Wesley's " Life of Fletcher." 



Age 48.] Original Letter to Miss Bosanquet. 4 1 1 



through the streets in a coach, they were informed the Pope was coming, 
and it would be required of them to kneel while he went by, as all the 
people did ; if they did not, in all probability the mob would knock them 
on the head. But this they flatly refused to do ; judging the paying 
such honour to a man was idolatry. The coachman was terrified, but 
turned aside into a narrow way. The Pope was in an open landau, 
waved his hands, and frequently repeated, ' God bless you all ! ' Mr. 
Fletcher's spirit was greatly stirred, and he longed to bear a public 
testimony against anti-Christ ; and he would have done it had he been 
able to speak Italian. He could hardly refrain from doing it in Latin, 
till he considered that only the priests could understand him." 1 

While in the south of France, Fletcher wrote to Miss 
Bosanquet the following letter, which is now for the first time 
published : — 

" Marseilles, March 7, 1778. 

" DEAR MADAM, — Your letter did not reach me till after it had lain 
here, at the post office, several days. 

" I cannot be answerable for what the person you mention thinks of 
Mr. Wesley or me, or our sentiments. Nothing is more common than 
to see people drawing rash inferences from premises which are partly 
false and partly true. I can only answer for myself, and for what I deem 
to be the truth. 

" If you ask me what I think to be the truth with respect to Christian 
perfection, I reply, my sentiments are exposed to the world in my essay 
on ' Christian Perfection,' and in my essay on ' Truth,' where I lay the 
stress of the doctrine on the great promise of the Father, and on the 
Christian fulness of the Spirit. This I have done more particularly 
in a treatise on the ' Birth of the Spirit ; ' which treatise is not yet 
published. I do not rest the doctrine of Christian perfection on the 
absence of sin, — that is the perfection of a dove or a lamb ; nor on the 
loving God with all one 's power, for I believe all perfect Gentiles and 
Jews have done so ; but on the fulness of that superior, nobler, warmer, 
and more powerful dove, which the Apostle calls the love of the Spirit, 
or the love of God shed abroad by the Holy Ghost, given to the Chris - 
tian believers, who, since the Day of Pentecost, go on to the perfection 
of the Christian dispensation. 

" You will find my views of this matter in Mr. Wesley's sermons on 
Christian Perfection and on Spiritual Christianity ; with this difference, 
that I would distinguish more exactly between the believers baptized 
with the Pentecostal power of the Holy Ghost, and the believer who, 
like the Apostles after our Lord's ascension, is not yet filled with that 
power. 

" I own to you, Madam, that I have been much surprised to see the 
gross inattention to, and unbelief of, the promise of the Father among 



1 Wesley's "Life of Fletcher." 



412 



Wesley* s Designated Successor, 



[1778. 



believers of various classes. It is the sun among the stars, and yet 
some can hardly distinguish it. When I preached it to the Calvinists 
in Wales, they called it Mr. Wesley's whim. When I have spoken of 
it to our brethren, some have called it Lady Huntingdon's whim ; and 
others have looked upon it as a new thing ; which to me is the strongest 
proof that this capital Gospel doctrine is as much under a cloud now as 
the doctrine of justification by faith was at the time of the Reformation. 

" Should you go back by way of London, my essay on the Birth by 
which we enter into the Kingdom in the Holy Ghost is in the hands 
of Miss Thornton, Mrs. Greenwood's sister, who will give it you if you 
think worth while to look into it. I build my faith not on my experience, 
though this increases it, but upon the revealed truth of God. Go, 
Madam, and do the same, and pray for your affectionate brother and 
servant, 

" J. Fletcher. 

" Miss Bosanquet, 

"at Mrs. Southcot's, 
" Broad Mead, 
" Bristol." 

The " treatise," or rather sermon, referred to in this letter, 
was written in French, and was not published during the 
lifetime of Fletcher; but in 1794, Henry Moore, one of 
Wesley's first biographers, translated and printed it, with the 
title, " The New Birth. A Discourse written in French, by 
the Rev. John Fletcher, late Vicar of Madeley, Salop." 8vo, 
39 pp. This was one of the most remarkable productions 
of Fletcher's pen ; and great would be the service rendered 
to the cause of Christ if, in this day of loose thinking and 
carnal living, it were reprinted in a separate form, and read 
by the myriads who call themselves Methodists. Though 
mere quotations from it cannot do justice to it, yet two or 
three may be acceptable. 

Regeneration. — " What is the state of a soul that is born again ; and 
in what does regeneration consist ? In general, we may say, it is that 
great change by which man passes from a state of nature to a state of 
grace. He was an animal man ; in being born again he becomes a 
spiritual man. His natural birth had made him like to fallen Adam — 
to the old man, against whom God had pronounced the sentence of 
death, seeing it is the wages of sin ; but his spiritual birth makes him 
like to Jesus Christ — to the new man — which is created according to 
God in righteousness and true holiness. He was before born a child of 
wrath — proud, sensual, and unbelieving, full of the love of the world and 
of self-love, a lover of money and of earthly glory and pleasure, rather 
than a lover of God ; but, by regeneration, he is become a child and an 



Age 48.] Sermon Concerning the New Birth, 413 



heir of God, and a joint heir with Christ. The humility, the purity, the 
love of Jesus, is shed abroad in his heart by the Holy Spirit which is 
given to him, making him bear the image of the Second Adam. He is 
in Christ a new creature ; old things are passed away, all things are 
become new. All the powers and faculties of his soul are renovated. 
His understanding, heretofore covered with darkness, is illuminated by 
the experimental knowledge which he has of God and of His Son Jesus 
Christ. His conscience, asleep and insensible, awakes and speaks with 
a fidelity irreproachable. His hard heart is softened and broken. His 
will, stubborn and perverse, yields, and becomes conformable to the 
will of God. His passions, unruly, and earthly, and sensual, submit to 
the conduct of grace, and turn of themselves to objects invisible and 
heavenly. And the members of his body, servants more or less to 
iniquity, are now employed in the service of righteousness unto holiness." 

Why regeneration is necessary. — " To rejoice in the pleasures that 
are at God's right hand, it is needful to have senses and a taste that 
correspond thereto. The swine trample pearls under their feet. The 
elevated discourse of a philosopher is insupportable to a stupid mechanic ; 
and an ignorant peasant, introduced into a circle of men of learning 
and taste, is disgusted, sighs after his village, and declares no hour 
ever appeared to him so long. It would be the same to a man who is 
not regenerated, if we could suppose that God would so far forget His 
truth as to open to him the gate of heaven. He would be incapable of 
those transports of love which make the happiness of the glorified saints. 
It would be insupportable for him now to meditate one hour on the 
perfections of God ; what then shall He do among the cherubim and 
sera ft him, and the spirits of just men made perfect, who draw from 
thence their ravishing delights ? He loves the pleasures and comforts 
of an animal life ; but are these the same with the exercises of the 
spiritual life ? His conversations, his readings, his amusements, as 
void of edification as of usefulness, rarely fatigue him ; but an hour of 
meditation or prayer is insufferable. If he be not born again, not only 
he cannot be in a state to rejoice in the pleasures of Paradise, any more 
than a deaf man to receive with transport the most exquisite music ; 
but the ravishing delights of angels would cause in him an insupportable 
distaste. Yes, he would banish himself from the presence of God, rather 
than pass an eternity in prostrating himself before the throne, and crying 
day and night, Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts, who is, and who 
was, and who is to come / We conclude that the gate of heaven must 
be opened upon earth by regeneration, and by the love of God, or that 
it will remain shut for ever ; and that a local paradise would be only a 
sorrowful prison, to a man not regenerated, because, carrying nothing 
thither but depraved and earthly appetites and passions, and finding 
nothing there but spiritual and celestial objects, disgust and dissatis- 
faction would be the consequence ; and, like Satan, his own mind would 
be his hell." 



Perorations are too often rhetorical flourishes, and nothine 



4H 



Wesley 1 s Designated Successor. 



[1778. 



more ; but, in the case of Fletcher, they were the outpourings 
of a heart overcharged with feeling. The following is the 
last paragraph in the remarkable "Treatise" from which the 
foregoing extracts are taken : — 

" I conjure you by the majesty of that God before whom angels rejoice 
with trembling ; — by the terror of the Lord, who may speak to you in 
thunder, and this instant require your soul of you ; — by the tender mercies, 
the bowels of compassion of your heavenly Father, which are moved in 
your favour, all ungrateful as you are ! — I conjure you by the incarnation 
of the Eternal Word, by whom you were created ; — by the humiliation, 
the pains, the temptations, the tears, the bloody sweat, the agony, the 
cries of our great God and Saviour Jesus Christ ! — I conjure you by the 
bonds, the insults, the scourgings, the robes of derision, the crown of 
thorns, the ponderous cross, the nails, the instruments of death which 
pierced His torn body ; by the arrows of the Almighty, the poison of 
which drank up His spirit ; by that mysterious stroke of Divine wrath, 
and by those unknown terrors which forced Him to exclaim, ' My God, 
my God, why hast Thou forsaken Me ! ' — I conjure you by the interests 
of your immortal soul, and by the unseen accidents which may pre- 
cipitate you into eternity ; — by the bed of death, upon which you will 
soon be stretched, and by the useless sighs which you will then pour 
out, if your peace be not made with God ! — I conjure you by the sword 
of Divine justice, and by the sceptre of grace ; — by the sound of the last 
trumpet, and by the sudden appearance of the Lord Jesus Christ, with 
ten thousand of His holy angels ; — b}^ that august tribunal, at which 
you will appear with me, and which shall decide our lot for ever ; — by 
the vain despair of hardened sinners, and by the unknown transports of 
regenerate souls ! — I conjure you from this instant work out your salvation 
with fear and trembling ! Enter by the door into the sheepfold. Sell 
all to purchase the pearl of great price. Count all things dung and 
dross in comparison of the excellency of the knowledge of Jesus Christ. 
Let Him not go till He blesses you with that faith which justifies, and 
that sanctification without which no man shall see the Lord. And, 
soon transported from this vale of tears into the mansions of the just 
made perfect, 3 r ou shall cast your crown of immortal glory at the feet of 
Him that sitteth upon the throne, and before the Lamb who has redeemed 
us by His blood : to whom be the blessing, and the honour, and the 
glory, and the power for ever and ever ! Amen." 

It is time to return to Fletcher in the south of France. 
At the close of his sojourn here, he wrote as follows" to his 
curate, Mr. Greaves : — 

" My Very Dear Brother, — I received a letter yesterday from my 
second brother, who acquaints me, that he was to set out the 23rd of 
last month, to come hither" (Montpelier), " and take me to my native 
country, where my sick sister wants greatly to see me ; so that, if it 



Age 48.] Fletcher's Letter to his Curate. 415 



please God, I shall, next week, leave this place. The winter has been 
uncommonly rainy and windy ; and even last week we had half an inch 
of snow. The climate has, nevertheless, agreed with me better than 
England, and, as a proof of it, I need only tell you, that I rode last 
Friday, from Hieres, the orange gardens of France, hither, which is 
nearly fifty miles, and was well enough to preach last Sunday in French 
at the Protestant Church. Two English clergymen came to hear me, 
and one of them takes these lines to England, where I hope they will 
find you in health of body and soul, growing in strength of faith, in firm- 
ness of hope, and in fervency of love to God and man, and especially 
to those whom you are tempted to think hardly of, if any such there be. 
O my dear brother, no religion will do us or our people any good, but 
that which 'works by love,' — humble, childlike, obedient love. May 
that religion fill our souls, and influence all our tempers, words, and 
actions, and may the leaven leaven the whole lump ! May St. James's 
peaceable religion spread through all our parish ! 

" I hope you are settled to your satisfaction ; and I shall be glad to 
do what is in my power to make your stay at Madeley agreeable. I 
wish you may have as much success as we desire ; but, whatever success 
we have, we must cast our bread upon the waters, though we should see 
as little fruit as he that said of old, ' I have laboured in vain : ' for our 
reward will be with the Lord, if not with men." 1 

In company with his brother, Fletcher left Montpelier, 
and arrived at Nyon, the place of his nativity, where, in the 
house once occupied by his father, he received the utmost 
attention from his affectionate relatives, and had medical 
advice equal to any to be obtained in Europe. One of 
his first acts was to write " to the Societies in and about 
Madeley" He addressed them as " My dear, very dear 
brethren;" charged them all to meet him in heaven, "with 
all the mind that was in Christ;" and sent his "love and 
thanks to Mr. Murlin and Mr. Roberts," the two Methodist 
preachers stationed at Chester, showing that Madeley, at 
this period, was a part of the Chester circuit. 2 

Soon afterwards, he wrote to his beloved medical adviser, 
in England, Mr. William Perronet, as follows : — 

" Nyon, May 15, 1778. 
" The climate, and prospect, and fine roads, and pure air I enjoy 
here, had contributed to strengthen me a little ; when, about a month 
ago, something I was chewing got into my windpipe, and caused a fit 



1 Benson's "Life of Fletcher." 

2 Letters, 1791, p. 43. 



4i6 



Wesley s Designated Successor. 



[1778. 



of coughing which lasted half-an-hour. I then began to spit blood again, 
and ever since I have had a bad cough, which has sometimes exercised 
me violently for an hour after my first sleep. My cough, however, has 
been better the last two days, and I hope it will go off. I have bought 
a quiet horse, whose easy pace I can bear; and I ride much. I have 
not ventured upon preaching since I came hither: it would be impossible 
for me now to go through it. If the weather should grow hot, I may, 
at any time, go to the hills, the foot of which is five or six miles distant. 
I drink goats' milk, and have left off meat since the cough came on, 
but design eating a little again at dinner." 1 

Two days after the date of this letter, Fletcher was at 
Macon, whither he had gone to meet his friend Mr. Ireland, 
on his return from Montpelier to England. Whilst he was 
here, he wrote two letters, which must be quoted. The first, 
addressed to " The Rev. Messrs. John and Charles Wesley," 
was as follows : — 

"Macon, in Burgundy, May 17, 1778. 

" Rev. AND Dear Sirs, — I hope while I lie by, the Lord continues 
to renew your vigour, and sends you to water His vineyard, and to stand 
in the gap against error and vice. 

" I preached twice at Marseilles, but was not permitted to follow the 
blow. There are few noble, inquisitive Bereans in these parts. The 
ministers in the town of my nativity have been very civil. They have 
offered me the pulpit ; but, I fear, if I could accept the offer, it would 
soon be recalled. I am loath to quit this part of the field without casting 
a stone at that giant, sin, who stalks about with uncommon boldness. 
I shall, therefore, stay some months longer, to see if the Lord will give 
me strength to venture an attack. 

" Gambling and dress, sinful pleasure and love of money, unbelief 
and false philosophy, lightness of spirit, fear of man, and love of the 
world, are the principal sins by which Satan binds his captives in these 
parts. Materialism is not rare ; Deism and Socinianism are very com- 
mon ; and a set of Free-thinkers, great admirers of Voltaire 2 and 
Rosseau, Bayle and Mirabeau, seem bent upon destroying Christianity 
and government. If we believe them, the world is the dupe of kings 
and priests. Religion is fanaticism and superstition. Subordination is 
slavery. Christian morality is absurd, unnatural, and impracticable ; 
and Christianity the most bloody religion that ever was. And here it is 
certain, that, by the example of Christians so called, and by our con- 
tinual disputes, they have a great advantage, and do the truth immense 
mischief. Popery will certainly fall in France, in this or the next 



1 Benson's " Life of Fletcher." 

2 Thirteen days after the date of this letter, Voltaire, in Paris, took 
a large dose of opium, without the advice of his physicians, and died. 



Age 48.] Letter to John and Charles Wesley, 417 



centicry ; and I have no doubt God will use those vain men to bring 
about a reformation here, as he used Henry the Eighth to do that work 
in England ; so the madness of His enemies shall, at last, turn to His 
praise, and to the futherance of His kingdom. 

"In the meantime, it becomes all lovers of the truth to make their 
heavenly tempers, and humble, peaceful love to shine before all men, 
that those mighty adversaries, seeing the good works of professors, 
may glorify their Father who is in heaven, and no more blaspheme that 
worthy name, by which we are all called Christians. 

"If you ask, what s} r stem these men adopt? I answer, some build 
on Deism a morality founded on self -preservation, self-interest, and 
self-honoicr. Others laugh at all morality, except that which being 
neglected violently disturbs society. And external order is the decen 
covering of Fatalism, while Materialism is their system. 

" Oh, dear Sirs, let me entreat you, in these dangerous days, to use 
your wide influence, with unabated zeal, against the scheme of these 
modern Celsuses, Porphyries, and Julians, by calling all professors to 
think and speak the same things, to love and embrace one another, and 
to firmly resist those daring men ; many of whom are already in England, 
headed by the admirers of Mr. Hume and Mr. Hobbes. But it is need- 
less to say this to those who have made, and continue to make, such a 
stand for vital Christianity ; so that I have nothing to do but pray that 
the Lord may abundantly support and strengthen you, and make you 
a continued comfort to His enlightened people, loving reprovers of those 
who mix light with darkness, and a terror to the perverse. 

"I need not tell you, Sirs, that the hour in which Providence shall 
make my way plain to return to England, to unite with those who feel 
or seek the power of Christian godliness, will be welcome to me. O 
favoured Britons ! Happy would it be for them, if they knew their 
Gospel privileges ! 

"My relations in Adam are all very kind to me ; but the spiritual 
relations, whom God has raised me in England, exceed them yet. 
Thanks be to Christ, and to His blasphemed religion ! 

"I am, Rev. Sirs, your affectionate son, and obliged servant in the 
Gospel, 

"J. Fletcher." 1 

On the day after the date of this letter, Fletcher wrote 
the following to the Rev. Dr. Conyers, another Methodist 
Clergyman, to whom he had sent his " Reconciliation ; or, an 
easy Method to unite the people of God" published in 1777 : — 

"Macon, in Burgundy, May 18, 1778. 
"Hon. AND Dear Sir,— I left orders, with a friend, to send you a 
little book called ' The Reconciliation,'' in which I endeavour to bring 
nearer the children of God, who are divided about their partial views 



1 Arminian Magazine, 1788, p. 384. 

27 



4i8 



Wesley 1 s Designated Successor. 



[1778. 



of divine truths. I know not whether that tract has, in any degree, 
answered its design ; but I believe truth can be reconciled with itself, 
and the candid children of God one with another. O that some abler 
hand, and more loving heart, would undertake to mend my plan, or 
draw one more agreeable to the Word of God ! My eyes are upon you, 
dear Sir, and those who are like-minded with you, for this work. Dis- 
appoint not my hope. Stand forth, and make way for reconciling love, 
by removing, so far as lies in you, what is in the way of brotherly union. 

" O Sir ! the work is worthy of you. If you saw with what boldness 
the false philosophers of the continent, who are the apostles of the age, 
attack Christianity, and represent it as one of the worst religions in the 
world, and fit only to make the professors of it murder one another, or 
at least to contend among themselves, and how they urge our disputes 
to make the Gospel of Christ the jest of nations, and the abhorrence of 
all flesh, you would break through your natural timidity, and invite all 
our brethren in the ministry to unite and form a close battalion, and 
face the common enemy. 

" O dear Sir ! take courage. Be bold for reconciling truth. Be bold 
for peace. You can do all things through Christ strengthening you ; 
and, as Doctor Conyers, you can do many things, a great many more 
than you think. What if you go, Sir, in Christ's name, to all the Gospel 
ministers of your acquaintance, exhort them as a father, entreat them 
as a brother, and bring them, or as many of them as you can, together ? 
Think you that your labour would be in vain in the Lord ? Impossible, 
Sir ! O despair not. If you want a coach, or a friend to accompany 
you, when you go upon this errand of love, remember there is a Thornton 
in London, and an Ireland in Bristol, who will wish you God speed ; 
and God will raise many more to concur in the peaceful work. 

"Let me humbly entreat you to go to work, and to persevere in it. 
I wish I had strength to be, at least, your postilion when you go. I 
would drive, if not like Jehu, at least with some degree of cheerful 
swiftness, while Christ smiled on the Christian attempt. But I am con- 
fident you can do all in the absence of him, who is, with brotherly love, 
and dutiful respect, Hon. and dear Sir, your obedient servant in the 
Gospel, 

"J. Fletcher." 1 

Dr. Conyers, to whom this letter was addressed, was a 
notable man. Born at Helmsley, Yorkshire, in 1725, he, in 
due time, became the Vicar of that extensive parish. His 
conversion there, and his labours, were remarkable. In 1765, 
he married Mrs. Knipe, a rich and pious widow, the sister of 
the well-known John Thornton, Esq., of Clapham. Three 
years before the foregoing letter was written, Mr. Thornton 
presented him to the living of St. Paul's, Deptford ; and 



1 Arminian Magazine, 1788, p. 386. 



Age 48.] Estate of the Perronet Family in Switzerland. 4 1 9 



here he died in 1786, eight months after the death of 
Fletcher. 1 At the beginning of his evangelical career, he 
was warmly attached to Wesley, and a firm believer in the 
doctrines of the Arminians. Afterwards, he was, to some 
extent, influenced by certain of the Calvinian Ministers, with 
whom he held converse ; but, like his brother-in-law, John 
Thornton, he was a lover of all good men ; and, occupying 
a kind of neutral position between the contending parties, 
Fletcher deemed him well qualified to bring about the recon- 
ciliation of the two. 

At this period, the venerable Vicar of Shoreham had been 
recently informed that he was entitled to a valuable estate 
in Switzerland, and William Perronet, Fletcher's medical 
adviser in England, had undertaken to visit Switzerland to 
enforce his father's rights. Before doing so, however, he 
wrote to Fletcher, requesting his advice ; and Fletcher's 
reply was as follows : — 

"Nyon, June 2, 1778. 

"My Dear Friend, — When I wrote to you last, I mentioned two 
ladies of your family who have married two brothers, Messrs. Monod. 
Since then, they have requested me to send your father the enclosed 
memorial, which I hope will prove of use to your family. As the bad 
writing and the language may make the understanding of it difficult, I 
forward you the substance of it, and of the letter of the ladies' lawyer. 

" While I invite you to make your title clear to a precarious estate on 
earth, permit me, my dear Sir, to remind you of the heavenly inheritance 
entailed on believers. The will, the New Testament by which we can 
recover it, is proved. The Court is just and equitable ; the Judge is 
gracious and loving. To enter into possession of a part of the estate 
here, and of the whole hereafter, we need only believe and prove 
evcmgelically that we are believers. Let us then set about it now, 
with earnestness, with perseverance, and with a full assurance that, 
through grace, we shall carry our cause. Alas ! what are estates and 
crowns to grace and glory ? 

" I have had a pull back since I wrote last. After I left Mr. Ireland 
at Macon, to shorten my journey and enjoy new prospects, I ventured 
to cross the mountains which separate France from this country. On 
the third day of the journey, I found a large hill, whose winding roads 
were so steep that, though we fed the horses with bread and wine, they 
could scarcely draw the chaise, and I was obliged to walk in all the 
steepest places. The climbing lasted several hours ; the sun was hot ; 
I perspired violently; and the next day I spit blood again. I have 



1 Evangelical Magazine, 1794. 



4-o 



Wesley's Designated Successor. 



[1778. 



chiefly kept to goat's milk ever since; I find myself better; and my 
cough is neither frequent nor violent. 

"This is a delightful country. If you come to see it, and to claim 
the estate, bring all the papers and memorials you can collect; and 
share a pleasant apartment, and one of the finest prospects in the 
world, in the house where I was born. I design to try this fine air some 
months longer. We have a fine shady wood near the lake, where I 
can ride in the cool all the day, and enjoy the singing of a multitude of 
birds. But this, though sweet, does not come up to the singing of my 
dear friends in England. There I meet them in spirit several hours in 
the day." 1 

The ensuing letter, kindly lent by the Rev. Dr. Knowles, 
of Tunbridge Wells, has not before been published. It was 
addressed to " Mr. Power, Druggist, in Broadmead, Bristol, 
Angleterre." 

"Nyqn, June 20, 1778. 
"Dear Sir, — A journey and my constant rides have hindered me 
acknowledging sooner the favour of your observations and criticisms, 
which I received some time ago. If I had my little publications here, to 
turn to the pages you quote, I would immediately make notes, and alter 
or rectify what you object to, as a preparation for a more correct edition, 
should the work be ever reprinted. I wish all my friends had taken as 
much pains about my works as you have, Sir ; they would by this time 
be more correct. Accept my sincere thanks for the favour ; and, if I 
live to see England again, we shall (please God) talk the matter over 
fully. 

" I am obliged to you for }~our caution about preaching. I have 
followed it, and have not yet preached in this country, though I believe 
I shall soon venture again upon it, but with care and in a sparing 
manner. I hope at least the Lord will give me grace so to do. 

" I heartily rejoice that Mrs. Power has been carried safely, a second 
time, through the danger of child-bearing. May she and the two 
fruits of her body live to the glory of God, and to your comfort ! Re- 
member me kindly to her ; and give my blessing to my god-son, whose 
will, I hope, you continue to break with the wisdom, patience, and 
steadiness which become a parent. 

" I sent your mother a few lines by Mr. Ireland. I hope she received 
them ; but I shall never get an answer, if what he writes me is true. Is 
she dead indeed ? Sometimes I hope it is a rumour without foundation ; 
and yet his account that she died at Bath, where your letter mentions 
she was gone, makes me fear he was well-informed. If she is no more, 
you have lost a tender mother, and I a kind friend ; but the Lord will 
make up all our losses, and has already made them up bv giving us 
His Son. May we receive Him, and with Him all that is excellent 



1 Letters, 1791, p. 263, and Benson's "Life of Fletcher. 



Age 48.] Fletcher among Children. 



421 



among the living and the dead ! As she has been for many years a 
woman of sorrow, — a true Hannah — wading almost constantly through 
a sea of temptations, they may have followed her to the last, and she 
may have escaped out of many tribulations, as the saints mentioned in 
the Revelation. A line about it, and about your welfare, and that of my 
god-son, will greatly oblige, dear Sir, your obedient and already obliged 
servant, J. FLETCHER. 

" My love to your brother, when you see him." 

The next letter, written to Mr. Ireland, contains a sylvan 
scene worthy of being painted : — 

"Nyon, July 15, 1778. 
" My Dear Friend, — I have ventured to preach once, and to expound 
once in the church. Our ministers are very kind, and preach to the 
purpose. A young one of this town gave us lately a very excellent 
gospel sermon. 

" Grown-up people stand fast in their stupidity, or in their self- 
righteousness. The day I preached, I met some children in my wood 
gathering strawberries. I spoke to them about our common Father. 
We felt a touch of brotherly affection. They said they would sing to 
their Father, as well as the birds ; and followed me, attempting to 
make such melody as you know is commonly made in these parts. I 
outrode them, but some of them had the patience to follow me home; 
and said they would speak with me. The people of the house stopped 
them, saying, I would not be troubled with children. They cried, and 
said, they were store I would not say so, for I was their good brother. 
The next day, when I heard this, I enquired after them, and invited 
them to come and see me ; which they have done every day since. I 
make them little hymns, which they sing. Some of them are unde, 
sweet drawings. Yesterday, I wept for joy on hearing one of them 
speak, as an experienced believer in Bristol would have done, of con- 
viction of sin, and of the joy unspeakable in Christ that followed. Last 
Sunday, I met them in the wood ; there were a hundred of them, and as 
many adults. Our first pastor has since desired me to desist from 
preaching in the wood (for I had exhorted), for fear of giving umbrage ; 
and I have complied, from a concurrence of circumstances which are 
not worth mentioning; I therefore now meet them in my father's 
yard." 1 

What a contrast to this scene of gentleness among children 
is the following ! 

Fletcher had a nephew, who had been in the Sardinian 
army, where his ungentlemanly and profligate conduct had 
given such general offence to his brother officers that they 



Letters, 1791, p. 264. 



422 Wesley's Designated Successor. [1778. 



determined to compel him to leave their corps, or to fight 
them all in succession. After engaging in two or three 
duels, with various success, the young bravo left the service, 
and now, during Fletcher's present visit, he returned to 
Switzerland. His resources were soon spent in profligacy ; 
and, gaining access to his uncle, General De Gons, he pre- 
sented a loaded pistol, and said, " Uncle De Gons, if you do 
not give me a draft on your banker for five hundred crowns, 
I will shoot you." The General was a brave man, but, 
seeing himself in the power of a desperado capable of any 
mischief, he wrote the draft. " Uncle," said the young 
fellow, " you must do another thing ; you must promise me, 
on your honour, to use no means to recover the draft, or 
to bring me to justice." The General promised, and the 
bandit rode away triumphantly. Passing the door of his uncle 
Fletcher, he called upon him, and told him General De Gons 
had generously given him five hundred crowns. Fletcher 
doubted the truthfulness of this statement. The draft was 
produced. " Let me see it," said Fletcher. It was handed 
to him. Fletcher examined it, and remarked, "It is indeed my 
brother's writing, and it astonishes me ; because my brother is 
not wealthy, and I know that he justly disapproves your con- 
duct, and that you are the last in the family to whom he would 
make such a present." Then, folding the draft and putting 
it into his pocket, Fletcher added, " It strikes me, young 
man, that you have obtained this draft improperly ; and, in 
honesty, I cannot return it without my brother's approbation." 
Out came the pistol, and was levelled at Fletcher's breast. 
" Return it," cried the young scoundrel, " or I will take your 
life." " My life," calmly replied Fletcher, " is secure in the 
protection of the Almighty Power who guards it ; nor will 
He suffer it to be the forfeit of your rashness, or my in- 
tegrity. Do you think that I, who have been a minister of 
God for five-and-twenty years, am afraid of death ? It is 
for you to fear death, who have every reason to fear it. 
You are a gamester and a cheat, yet call yourself a gentle- 
man ! You are the seducer of female innocence, and still 
you say that you are a gentleman ! You are a duellist and 
your hand is red with blood, and for this you call yourself a 
man of honour ! Look there, Sir ! look there ! See, the broad 



Age 48.] 



Messages to Madeley. 



423 



eye of heaven is upon us. Tremble in the presence of your 
Maker, who can in a moment kill your body, and for ever 
damn your soul ! " The culprit turned pale ; then he argued, 
threatened, and entreated. Sometimes, taking out his pistol, 
he fixed himself against the door to prevent egress ; and, at 
other times, closed on frail Fletcher, menacing him with 
instantaneous death. All was of no avail. The poor 
country parson was as valorous as the most heroic soldier. 
He gave no alarm to the family ; he sought no weapon ; 
he attempted no escape ; he simply conversed with the 
calmness of a hero and a saint. At length, the young fellow 
began to be affected ; and now, having gained the victory, 
Fletcher addressed him in another strain : " I cannot return 
my brother's draft," said he ; " yet I feel for your distress, 
and will endeavour to relieve it. My brother Gons, at my 
request, I am sure will give you a hundred crowns ; I will 
do the same ; perhaps my brother Henry will do as much ; 
and I hope your own family will make up the five hundred 
crowns among them." Fletcher then fell upon his knees, 
and began to pray ; uncle and nephew parted, and the 
family, by Fletcher's mediation, furnished the young scape- 
grace with the five hundred crowns he had feloniously 
attempted to extort. 1 

Amidst such scenes, Fletcher did not forget his friends at 
Madeley. On July 18, he wrote three messages : — 

To his cicrate, the Rev. Mr. Greaves. — " I trust you lay yourself out 
for the good of the flock committed to your care. I shall be glad to 
hear that they grow in grace, and humble love." 

To the congregation in Madeley church. — "John Fletcher begs a 
farther interest in the prayers of the congregation of Madeley ; and 
desires those, who assemble to serve God in the church, to help him 
to return public thanks to Almighty God for many mercies received ; 
especially, for being able to do a little ministerial duty. He humbly 
beseeches them to serve God as Christians, and to love one another as 
brethren ; neglecting no means of grace, and rejoicing in all the hopes 
of glory." 

To the Methodist Societies 11 in Madeley \ Daw ley, and the Banks." — 
' We are all called to grow in grace, and, consequently, in love, which 



1 Cox's " Life of Fletcher," p. 129. 



424 



Wesley* s Designated Successor. 



[i77?. 



is the greatest of all Christian graces. Your prayers for my soul and 
my body have not been without answer. Blessed be God ! Glory be 
to His rich mercy in Christ, I live yet the life of faith ; as to my body, 
I recover some strength. God bless you all, with all the blessings 
brought to the Church by Christ Jesus, and by the other Comforter ! 
My love to the preachers" (John Murlin and Robert Roberts), "whom 
I beg you will thank in my name." 1 

Two months later (September 15), he wrote to his friend 
Thomas York : — 

" Blessed be the God of all consolation, though I have still very trying 
and feverish nights, I am kept in peace of mind ; resigned to His will, 
who afflicts me for my good, and justly sets me aside for my unprofit- 
ableness. His grace within, and His people without, turn my trying 
circumstances into matter of praise. Give my love to all your dear 
family ; to the two or three who may yet remember me at Shiffnal ; and, 
also, to Daniel, and desire him, when he gathers the Easter dues, to 
give my love and thanks to all my parishioners." 2 

No doubt Fletcher's statement to Mr. York, respecting 
himself, was strictly true ; but, still, there must have been 
a considerable improvement in his health since he left 
England. Hence the following interesting letter, written to 
Mr. Ireland only ten days later : — 

"Nyon, Sefite7nber 25, 1778. 

" My Dear Friend, — I am just returned from an excursion I have 
made with my brother, through the fine vale in the midst of the high 
hills which divide France from this country. In that vale we found 
three lakes, one on French ground, and two on Swiss : the largest is 
six miles long and two wide. It is the part of the country where industry- 
is most apparent, and where population thrives best. The inhabitants 
are chiefly woodmen, coopers, watchmakers, and jewellers. They told 
me, they had the best singing, and the best preacher, in the country. I 
asked, if any sinners were converted under his ministry ? They stared, 
and asked, what I meant by conversion ? When I had explained myself, 
they said, 'We do not live in the time of miracles.' 

" I was better satisfied in passing through a part of the vale which 
belongs to the King of France. I saw a prodigious concourse of people, 
and supposed they kept a fair, but was agreeably surprised to find three 
missionaries in the midst of them, who went about as itinerant preachers 
to help the regular clergy. They had been there some days, and were 
three brothers, and preached morning and evening. The evening service 
opened with what they called a conference. One of the missionaries 



1 Letters, 1791, p. 45. 

2 Ibid, p. 45. 



Age 49.] Fletcher Preaching at an Execution. 425 



took the pulpit, and the parish priest proposed questions to him, which 
he answered at full length and in a very edifying manner. The subject 
was the unlawfulness and the mischief of those methods by which persons 
of different sexes lay snares for each other, and corrupt each other's 
morals. The subject was treated with delicacy, propriety, and truth. 
The method was admirably well calculated to draw and fix the attention 
of a mixed multitude. This conference being ended, another missionary 
took the pulpit. His text was our Lord's description of the day of judg- 
ment. Before the sermon, all those who, for the press, could kneel, 
did, and sang a French hymn to beg a blessing on the word ; and indeed 
it was blessed. An awful attention was visible upon most, and, during 
a good part of the discourse, the voice of the preacher was almost lost 
in the cries and bitter wailings of the audience. When the outcry 
began, the preacher was describing the departure of the wicked into 
eternal fire. They urged that God w r as merciful, and that Jesus Christ 
had shed His blood for them. ' But that mercy you have slighted, and 
now is the time of justice. That blood you have trodden under foot, 
and now it cries for vengeance. Know your day. Slight the Father's 
mercy and the Son's blood no longer.' I have seen but once or twice 
congregations as much affected in England. 

"One of our ministers being ill, I ventured, a second time, into the 
pulpit last Sunday ; and, the Sunday before, I preached, six miles off, 
to two thousand people in the yard of a jail, where they were come to 
see a murderer before his execution. I was a little abused by the bailiff 
on the occasion, and was refused the liberty of attending the poor man 
to the scaffold, where he was to be broken on the wheel. I hope he 
died penitent. The day before he suffered, he said he had broken his 
irons, and that, as he deserved to die, he desired new ones to be put 
on, lest he should be tempted to make his escape. 

" You ask, what I design to do ? I propose, if it be the Lord's will, 
to spend the winter here. In the spring, I shall, if nothing prevents, 
return to England with you, or with Mr. Perronet, if his affairs are 
settled, or alone, if other ways fail. In the meanwhile, I rejoice with 
you in Jesus, and in the glorious hope of that complete salvation His 
faithfulness has promised, and His power can never be at a loss to 
bestow. We must be saved by faith and hope till we are saved by 
perfect love, and made partakers of heavenly glory. I am truly a 
stranger here. As strangers let us go where we shall meet the assembly 
of the righteous gathered in Jesus." 1 

Mr. William Perronet arrived at Nyon in the month of 
December, and, in letters to his father, related : — 

' ' However engaged Mr. Fletcher is the greater part of the day, he is 
generally so kind as to spend a little time with me in the evening in 
prayer and conversation. His chief delight seems to be in meeting his 



1 Letters, 1791, p. 268. 



426 



Wesley* s Designated Successor. [1779. 



little society of children. He is exceedingly fond of them, and they 
appear to be as fond of him. He seldom walks abroad or rides out, 
but some of them follow him, singing the hymns they have learned, and 
conversing with him by the way. But you must not suppose that he is 
permitted to enjoy this happiness unmolested. Not only do the drunkards 
make songs on him and his little companions, but many of the clergy 
loudly complain of such irregular proceedings. However, he is upon 
good terms with three ministers of the place ; all of whom are serious 
men, and desirous of promoting true religion. 

" He is better, I think, than when he left England ; but he frequently 
puts his strength to too severe a trial, by meeting his Society of children, 
and some grown persons ; and other exercises of a like nature. When 
he ventures to preach, his spitting of blood returns ; and whenever this 
happens, his strength and spirits decay surprisingly." 1 

Fletcher and his brother translated all the papers of 
William Perronet into French, and, in other ways, assisted 
him, in reference to the estate which he had gone to Swit- 
zerland to obtain. Notwithstanding the delicate state of 
Fletcher's health, the three set out, in the wintry weather of 
that December month, to visit Chateau d' Oex, where the 
property was situated. The distance from Nyon was fifty- 
seven miles. When they had made about a quarter of the 
journey, " the horses were tired out, the coachman refused 
to proceed further," and they were obliged to return home 
again. 2 A few days later, they made another attempt, and 
arrived at their destination on January 10, 1779. Five days 
afterwards, they were again at Nyon. 

In Fletcher's state of health, such a journey was perilous ; 
but his love to the Perronet family was such that, to him, 
no labour and risk, on their behalf, were too great. In 
letters to his venerable father, at Shoreham, William Perronet 
states, that none of them having been to Chateau d'Oex 
before, they were obliged to employ a guide, and that " on 
account of the badness of the ways," they had " to go some 
leagues about," which made their journey about eighty miles. 
Their coach had to pass " over mountains of snow and rocks 
of ice." When nine miles from Chateau d'Oex, they were 
obliged to exchange their coach for "an open sledge ;" and 
now they " travelled through narrow passes, cut through the 



1 Benson's " Life of Fletcher " 

2 Ibid. 



Age 49.] 



Perilous Journey. 



427 



snow, which, on both sides, was many feet above their heads ; 
on the sides of mountains, whose summits the eye could 
scarcely reach ; and frequently on the brink of precipices, at 
the bottoms of which they could hear the waters roar like 
thunder." In one place, Fletcher and William Perronet, 
being obliged to walk, their feet slipped : Fletcher " received 
a violent blow on the back part of the head and William 
Perronet " sprained" his ''wrist." In crossing the Alps, they 
had to lie " two nights in beds that were not only damp, 
but musty and without curtains ;" and, "being in a Popish 
canton, and Friday and Saturday being meagre days," they 
" were almost starved with hunger as well as cold." " The 
weather was extremely severe, and it was scarce in the power 
of clothes, or even of fire, to keep" them "warm." William 
Perronet concludes his narrative of their adventures as 
follows : — 

"Whether I succeed in my temporal business or not, I shall ever 
remember, with pleasure and thankfulness, the opportunities I have 
been blessed with in spending so much time in company with our 
inestimable friend ; who, wherever he goes, preaches the Gospel, both 
by his words and example ; nay, by his very looks, not only to his 
friends, but to all whom he meets : so that, on the top of the frozen 
Alps, and in the drear}' vale of Chateau d'Oex, good seed has been 
sown. At Chateau d'Oex, he was visited by some of the principal 
inhabitants, who stood around him, in deep attention, for almost an 
hour, while he exhorted and prayed." 1 

In a postscript to this letter, Fletcher wrote : — ■ 

" I have had the pleasure of accompanying your son to your father's 
birthplace. It is a charming country for those who have a taste for 
highland prospects ; but what is it to our heavenly Father's Hill of 
Sion ? Thither may we all travel, summer and winter, and there may 
we all have a happy meeting, and find an eternal inheritance ! " 

Three weeks later, Fletcher wrote the following to Mr. 
Ireland : — • 

"Nyon, February 2, ijjg. 

" My Dear Friend, — I am sorry to hear that you are still tried by 
illness ; but our good, heavenly Father is wise ; His will be done ; His 
name be praised ! 

" I am better, thank God ! and ride out every day, when the slippery 



1 Benson's "Life of Fletcher." 



428 



Wesley* s Designated Successor, 



[1779- 



roads will permit me to venture without the risk of breaking my horse's 
legs and my own neck. You will ask me how I spend my time ? I 
pray, have patience, rejoice, and write, when I can ; I saw wood in the 
house when I cannot go out ; and eat grapes, of which I have always 
a basket by me. 

"Our little Lord-Lieutenant has forbidden the ministers to let me exhort 
in the parsonage, because it is the sovereign's house. My second 
brother has addressed a memorial to him, in which he informs him that 
he will give up neither his religious nor civil liberty, and will open his 
house for the Word of God. According, we have. since met at his house. 

" On Sunday, we met at the young clergyman's who writes against 
the conduct of the clergy ; but I fear we fence against a wall of brass. 
However, I am quite persuaded that Providence calls me to leave a 
testimony to my French brethren, and it may be of some use when I 
shall be no more. I have been comforted by the apology of a minister 
at Yverdon, who was persecuted at the beginning of this century under 
the name of Pietist ; and I have become acquainted with a faithful 
minister of Geneva, but he dares no more offer me his pulpit than my 
brother-in-law at Lausanne. 

" Several young women seem to have received the Word in the love 
of it, and four or five grown-up ones ; but not one man, except the young 
hopeful clergyman I mention, who helps me at my little meetings, and 
begins to preach extempore. The truths I chiefly insist upon, when I 
talk to the people who will hear me, are those which I feed upon myself 
as my daily bread. ' God, our Maker and Preserver, though invisible? 
is here and everywhere. He is our chief good, because all beauty and 
all goodness centre in and flow from Him. He is especially love ; 
and love in us, being His image, is the sum and substance of all moral 
and spiritual excellence — of all true and lasting bliss. In Adam we are 
all estranged from love and from God ; but the Second Adam — Jesus, 
Emanuel, God with us, — is come to make us know and enjoy again our 
God as the God of love and the chief good. All who receive Jesus 
receive power to become the sons of God,' etc., etc. 

" I hope I shall be able to set out for England with Mr. Perronet, in 
April or May. O that I may find that dear island in peace within and 
without ! 1 Well, I hope you make peace in the Church if you cannot 
make peace with the patriots. 

"The coats and shoes you gave me have lasted all this while, and 
are yet good ; so that I need not draw upon your banker. Thank God, 
and you, for a thousand favours ! God bless and comfort you, my dear 
friend ! We are poor creatures, but we have a good God to cast all our 
burdens upon, and who often burdens us that we may have constant and 
free recourse to His bounty, power, and faithfulness. Stand fast in the 
faith. Believe lovingly, and all will be well." 2 



1 The war with the American Colonists was now raging, and England 
was greatly excited. 

2 Letters, 1791, p. 271. 



Age 49.] 



Letter to the Made ley Methodists. 



429 



To his friend and Methodist helper among the Madeley 
Societies, William Wase, Fletcher wrote as follows : — 

"Nyon, February 11, 1 779. 

" My Dear Friend, — I have just received yours of January 24, and 
rejoice to hear of the welfare of your friends, whom I long much to see ; 
but there is no blessing here without some alloy of grief, and such was 
to me the account of the poor state of health of dear Mrs. Wase. Tell 
her I should be glad to hold up her hands in her fight of affliction ; but, 
if the poor, unprofitable, weak servant is afar off, the Master, who is 
rich in mercy, who fills the whole world with His goodness and patience, 
is near to her and to all His afflicted ones. I recommend to her two 
remedies. One is a cheerful resignation to the will of God, whereby her 
animal spirits will be greatly raised or sweetly refreshed. The other is, 
four lumps of heavenly sugar, to be taken every half hour, day and night, 
when she does not sleep. I make a constant use of them, to my great 
comfort. They have quickened my soul when I was dying, and I doubt 
not they will have the same effect upon hers. They are : ' God so loved 
the world,' etc. 'If any man sin,' etc. ' It is a faithful saying,' etc. 
' Come unto Me, all ye that are weary,' etc. 

"Tell my little god-daughter, Patty Cartwright, she is big enough 
and bad enough to take these heavenly pills. Tell her mother to take 
them regularly with her. What a shame it is to have such a remedy 
and not to make more use of it ! 

" Remember me in much love to dear Mr. Hatton. Thank brother 
Costerdine and his fellow-labourer 1 for their occasional help. May the 
Lord vouchsafe to consecrate our little Zoar 2 by calling one sinner and 
establishing another saint ! How abundantly shall we be repaid for our 
little expense and trouble ! Thank the brethren you have mentioned ; 
salute them kindly from me, not forgetting John Tranter and our friends 
at the Fore Bank — Thomas Pool and Thomas Banks, and our friends 
at Dawley Green. You may see in the enclosed that I am not without 
hopes of telling you in May how much I am yours, 

" J. Fletcher." 3 

" The enclosed " communication bore the same date as 
this letter to William Wase, of Broseley, and was addressed 
"To the Brethren in and about Madeley;" i.e., the Metho- 
dists : — 

"My Dear Companions in Tribulation, — Peace and mercy, 
faith, hope, and love be multiplied to you all from the Father of mercies 



1 James Barry and Robert Costerdine, the two Methodist itinerant 
preachers stationed in the Chester circuit, of which Madeley and its 
neighbourhood were a part. 

2 The meeting-house Fletcher had recently erected in Madeley Wood, 
and which is now a part of the Wesleyan Chapel there. 

3 Letters, 1791, p. 47, and the Christian Miscellany, 1877, p. 333. 



430 



Wesley' 's Designated Successor. [1779. 



through the Lord Jesus Christ, by the Spirit of grace ! I thank you for 
your kind remembrance of me in your prayers. I am 3^et spared to pray 
for you. O that I had more power with God ! I would bring down 
heaven into all your hearts. Strive together in love for the living faith, 
the glorious hope, the sanctifying love once delivered to the saints. 
Look to Jesus. Move on ; run yourselves in the heavenly race, and let 
each sweetly draw his brother along, till the whole company appears 
before the redeeming God in Sion. 

" I hope God will, in His mercy, spare me to see you in the flesh ; and 
if I cannot labour for you, I shall gladly suffer with you. If you will 
put health into my flesh, joy into my heart, and life into my whole frame, 
be of 07ie heart and of one soul. Count nothing your own but your 
sin and shame ; and bury that dreadful property in the grave of our 
Saviour. Let all you are and have be His who bought you. Dig hard 
in the Gospel mines for hidden treasure. Blow hard the furnace of 
prayer with the bellows of faith until you are melted into love, and the 
dross of sin is purged out of every heart. Get together into Jesus, the 
heavenly ark, and sweetly sail into the ocean of eternity ; so shall you 
be true miners, furnacemen, and bargemen. Farewell, in Jesus ! Tell 
Mrs. Cound I shall greatly rejoice if she remembers Lot's wife." 1 

Six weeks after the date of this letter to the Madeley 
Methodists, Wesley visited them, and wrote : — 

" 1779. March 25, Thursday. I preached in the new house which 
Mr. Fletcher has built in Madeley Wood. The people here exactly 
resemble those at Kingswood, only they are more simple and teachable. 
But, for want of discipline, the immense pains which he has taken with 
them has not done them the good which might have been expected. 
I preached at Shrewsbury in the evening, and next day, about noon, in 
the assembly-room at Broseley. It was well we were in the shade, for 
the sun shone as hot as it usually does at midsummer. We walked 
from thence to Coalbrook Dale, and took a view of the bridge which is 
shortly to be thrown over the Severn. It is one arch, a hundred feet 
long, fifty-two high, and eighteen wide ; all of cast-iron, weighing many 
hundred tons. I doubt whether the Colossus at Rhodes weighed much 
more." 2 

Fletcher's health was still feeble, but he longed to be back 
to his parishioners and to the Methodists surrounding Made- 
ley. Hence the following to the Vicar of Shoreham : — - 

" 1779, March 29. I am still weak in body, but able to ride out and 
exhort some children. Well, the time shall come when, in a better 
state, we shall be able to glorify our heavenly Father. In the mean- 



1 Letters, p. 48. and ibid. p. 334. 

2 Wesley's Journal. 



Age 49.3 



Letters to Ala de ley. 



431 



time, let us do it either in the stocks of weakness or in the fires of tribu- 
lation ; and on our death-bed may we sing, with hearts overflowing with 
humble love, ' The Resurrection and the Life, the Friend and Saviour 
of sinners, loved me and gave Himself for me ; and I am going to see 
Him and to thank Him, face to face, for His matchless love ! ' 

"I hope the prospect respecting the inheritance of your fathers in 
this country clears up a little, and I trust the matter will be decided 
without a lawsuit. As soon as the affair is brought to some conclusion, 
we design to set out for England. The will of the Lord be done in all 
things ! " 1 

This was written in the week before Easter. The Puri- 
tanical Calvinists of Switzerland of course denounced the 
observance of holy days, and hence, at Nyon, there was no 
service on Good Friday, April 2 ; but Fletcher and William 
Perronet, who all their life had been accustomed to com- 
memorate the death of the incarnate Son of God, crossed 
the lake into Savoy, to hear a celebrated Capuchin. 

" He made," says Mr. Perronet, " a very good discourse, and he and 
his brethren invited us to dine with them. This we declined; but, after 
dinner, we paid our respects to them, when Mr. Fletcher spent two or 
three hours with them in serious and friendly conversation." 2 

Fletcher had expressed a hope that he would be able to 
return to his flock at Madeley in April or May, but his hope 
was not realized. The reasons for this will be found in the 
following extracts from his letters. To his curate, the Rev. 
Mr. Greaves, he said : — 

"Nyon, May 18, 1779. My dear fellow-labourer, — My departure 
being delayed some weeks gives me much concern, although, from the 
confidence I have in your pastoral diligence, I am easy about the flock 
you feed. Last week, a Visitation was held here, and the clergy of the 
town took my part against the Visitor and others, who said I was of a 
sect everywhere spoken against. The conversation about it held so 
long, and was so trying to my grain of humility, that I went out. The 
matter, however, ended peaceably by a vote that they should invite me 
to dinner. God ever save us from jealous and persecuting zeal. 

"I hope, my dear friend, you go on comfortably, doing more and 
more the work of an evangelist. Remember my love to as many of my 
parishioners as you meet with, and especially to all our good neighbours 
and to the Society." 3 



1 Benson's " Life of Fletcher." 

2 Ibid. 

3 Letters, 1791, p. 49. 



432 



Wesley 9 s Designated Successor. [1779. 



On the same day, he wrote to Michael Onions as follows : — 

" I have complied with the request of my friends to stay a little longer 
among them, as it was backed by a small Society of pious people 
gathered here. Three weeks ago, they got about me, and on their 
knees, with many tears, besought me to stay till they were a little 
stronger and able to stand alone ; nor would they rise till they had got 
me to comply. However, yesterday, I spoke with a carrier, from Geneva, 
to take me to London, who said he would take us at a fortnight's 
notice. 

" My love to your fellow-leaders, and, by them, to the companies you 
meet in prayer ; also to the preachers who help in the Round 1 . " 2 

On May 22, William Perronet, in a letter to his father, 
observed : — 

" On the 9th of this month, Mr. Fletcher preached in the church, on 
2 Cor. v. 20 — 'We are ambassadors for Christ,' etc. He spoke with 
a strong and clear voice for more than three-quarters of an hour, and did 
not find himself hurt by it. He has preached four times in the church 
since I have been here, and might have preached much oftener if his 
health would have allowed him ; for, by his friendly and prudent conduct 
towards the three ministers of the place, he is upon good terms with 
them now, although, at his first coming hither, they were afraid to own 
him, on account of his irregular conduct; for such they deemed his 
exhorting the children, and holding meetings in private houses." 3 

On the same day, Fletcher remarked to the same vener- 
able minister : — 

" My Very Dear Brother, and Honoured Father,— I rejoice 
that you are yet preserved to be a witness of the grace and saving 
health of Jesus. Let us rejoice that when our strength shall decay, 
His will remain entire for ever, and, in His strength, we, who take Him 
for our life, shall be strong. Our Redeemer liveth ; and, when sickness 
and death shall have brought down our flesh to the earth, we shall, by 
His resurrection's power, rise and live for ever with Him in heavenly 
places ; for the new earth will be a heaven, or a glorious province in 
the kingdom of heaven. The meek shall inherit it; and that inherit- 
ance will be fairer than yours at Chateau d'Oex, and surer too. 

" I hope to accompany your son soon to England." 4 

The following, also, was written at the same time, and 
was addressed to his honoured host and friend, Mr. Charles 
Greenwood, of Stoke Newington : — 

1 The name often given by the old Methodists to a Methodist Circuit. 

2 Letters, 1791, p. 51. 

3 'Benson's " Life of Fletcher." 

4 Ibid. 



Age 49.] 



Letter to Mr. Charles Greenwood. 



433 



" Nyon, May 22, 1779. 

"My Dear Friend, — "I am yet alive, able to ride out, and now 
and then to instruct a few children. I hope Mr. Perronet will soon have 
settled his affairs, and then, please God, I shall inform you, by word of 
mouth, how much I am indebted to you, Mrs. Greenwood and Mrs. 
Thornton. Thank and salute, on my behalf, Mr. John and Mr. Charles 
Wesley, Dr. Coke, and Mr. Atlay. 1 Thanks be to God for His un- 
speakable gifts, — His Son, His Spirit, and His Word ! And thanks be 
to His people, for their kindness towards the poor, the sick, the stranger, 
and especially towards me ! But, at this time, a sleepless night and a 
constant toothache unfit me for almost everything but lying down 
under the cross, kissing the rod, and rejoicing in hope of a better state, 
in this world or in the next. Perhaps weakness and pain are the best 
for me in this world. Well, the Lord will choose for me, and I fully set 
my heart and seal to His choice. Let us not faint in the day of adver- 
sity. The Lord tries us, that our faith may be purged of all the 
dross of self-will, and may work by that love, which beareth all things, 
and thinketh evil of nothing. Our calling is to follow the crucified, and 
we must be crucified with Him, until body and soul know the power of 
His resurrection, and pain and death are done away. 

" I hope my dear friend will make, with me, a constant choice of the 
following mottoes of St. Paul, — Christ is gain in life and death — Our 
life is hid with Christ in God — If we suffer with Him, we shall also 
reign with Him — We glo?y in tribitlatioit — God will give us rest 
with Christ in that day — We are saved by ho£e. To the Lord our 
God, Creator, Redeemer, and Sanctifier, let us give glory in the fires. 
Amen." 2 

Besides his own physical weakness and suffering, Fletcher 
had other trials in Switzerland. In a letter, written about 
the same time as the foregoing, he remarked : — 

" Let us bear with patience the decays of nature ; let us see, without 
fear, the approach of death. We must put off this sickly, corruptible 
body, in order to put on the immortal and glorious one. I have some 
hopes that my poor sister will yet be my sister in Christ. Her self- 
righteousness, I hope, breaks as fast as her body. I am come hither 
to see death make havoc among my friends. I wear mourning for my 
father's brother, and for my brother's son. The same mourning will 
serve for my dying sister, if I do not go before her. She lies on the 
same bed where my father and mother died, and where she and I were 
born. How near is life to death ! But, blessed be God, Christ, the 
Resurrection, is nearer to the weak, dying believer ! " 3 



1 Wesley's Book Steward, who, nine years afterwards, seceded from 
the Methodists, and took possession of a chapel which they had built at 
Dewsbury. 

2 Letters, 1791, p. 272. 

3 Benson's " Life of Fletcher." 

28 



434 



Wesley's Designated Successor, 



[1779- 



Fletcher, notwithstanding his longing to get back to his 
flock at Madeley, was still detained in Switzerland. Hence 
the following, addressed to Mr. Thomas York : — 

"NYON, July 18, 1779. 

''My Dear Sir, — Providence is still gracious to me, and raises me 
friends on all sides. May God reward them all, and may you have a 
double reward for all your kindness ! I hope I am getting a little 
strength. The Lord has blessed to me a species of black cherry, which 
I have eaten in large quantities. I have had a return of my spitting 
blood ; but, for a fortnight past, I have catechized the children of the 
town every day ; and I do not find much inconvenience from that exer- 
cise. Some of them seem to be under sweet drawings of the Father, 
and a few of their mothers begin to come, and desire me with tears in 
their eyes to stay in this country. They urge much my being born here, 
and I reply, that I was bom again in England ; that is, of course, the 
country which, to me, is the dearer of the two. 

' ' My friends have prevailed on me to publish ' A Poem on the Praises 
of God,' which I wrote many years ago. The revising it for the press 
is at once a business and a pleasure, which I go through on horseback. 
Help me, by your prayers, to ask a blessing on this little attempt. 

" I wish I could procure you an estate in this fine country, as I hope 
to do Mr. Perronet, one of the physicians who showed me so much love 
when I lay sick at Newington. His grandfather was a Swiss, who was 
naturalized in the reign of Queen Anne. By calling upon some of his 
relations, I have found that he is entitled to an estate of some j£iooo, of 
which he is come to take possession. So Providence prepares for me a 
friend, a kind physician, and a fellow-traveller, to accompany me back 
to England ; where one of my chief pleasures will be to embrace you, 
and to assure you, how much I am, my dear friend, your obliged 
sen-ant, 

"J. Fletcher." 1 

Alas ! little did Fletcher think that William Perronet 
would not return to England. 

" Providence," said Fletcher, in the letter just quoted* 
" raises me friends on all sides." He soon had need of 
them. In the month of September, William Perronet 
wrote : — 

" Mr. Fletcher has been wont to preach, now and then, in the church 
here (Nyon), at the request of one or other of the ministers ; but, some 
time ago, he was summoned before the Seigneur Bailiff, who sharply 
reprehended him for preaching against Sabbath-breaking and stage 
plays. The former, he said, implied a censure on the magistrates in 



1 Letters, 1791, p. 53. 



Age 50.] 



Fletcher has Rheumatism. 



435 



general, as if they neglected their duty. And the latter he considered 
as a personal reflection on himself, he having just then sent for a com- 
pany of French Comedians to come to Nyon. Accordingly, he forbade 
Mr, Fletcher to exercise, any more, any of the functions of a minister in 
this country. However, one of the Ministers here has given him a room 
in his own house to preach in; and here Mr. Fletcher meets a few serious 
persons, particularly a number of children, two or three times a week. 
Hitherto, his lordship has not interfered with respect to this mode of 
exhortation ; and both the number and the seriousness of the congre- 
gation increase daily." 1 

Referring to the same incident, Fletcher wrote : — 

" Our Lord Lieutenant, being stirred up by some of the clergy, and 
believing firmly that I am banished from England, took the alarm, and 
forbade the ministers to let me exhort in their houses ; threatening- 
them with the power of the Senate if they did. They all yielded, but 
are now ashamed of it, A young clergyman, a true Timothy, has opened 
me his house, where I exhort twice a week ; and the other clergymen, 
encouraged by his boldness, come to our meetings." 

William Perronet completes this story by relating that 
the minister, who began this discreditable opposition, died 
suddenly, as he was dressing to go to church ; and that 
his successor continued the same intolerant behaviour to- 
wards poor, well-meaning Fletcher. Mr. Perronet adds : — 

" Mr. Fletcher now thinks himself obliged, before he leaves his native 
country, to bear a public testimony to the truth. When his writing will 
be finished, I cannot say, for it multiplies under his fertile pen ; so that, 
I fear, we shall be obliged to spend another winter in this severe 
climate." 2 

There can be little doubt that the "public testimony," 
which Fletcher was now composing was his " Portrait of 
St. Paul," to be noticed anon. 

Soon after this, Fletcher had an attack of rheumatism, 
and wrote as follows to William Perronet, who had gone to 
Lausanne. After relating that the pain in his left shoulder 
had deprived him of sleep, and almost crippled him, he 
added : — 

" I have partly recovered the use of my shoulder; but it is still very 
weak. I drink a decoction of pine-apple, which is as warm as guaia- 
cum. My writing does not go on ; but the will of the Lord is done, and 



1 Benson's "Life of Fletcher." 
Ibid. 



43 6 Wesley s Designated Successor. [1779- 



that is enough. I would press you to come back soon, if I were not 
persuaded you are better where you are. I have been afraid that our 
bad meat here would make you lose your flesh ; and, for the honour of 
Switzerland, I should be glad you had some to carry back to England, 
if we live to go and see our friends there. I had last Sunday (De- 
cember 19), a great trial in my family. I see the Lord will not use me 
in this country for good, and, when we shall have finished our little 
matters, I shall be glad to go to my spiritual friends, and to my flock ; 
so much the more, as Mr. Ireland mentions my curate's danger of being 
in a consumption. My compliments and thanks wait on Miss Perronet. 
She was very obliging to share her drops with me. May we all share 
the springs of grace and glory together ! If you will come a,few leagues 
southward, and try the weather here, your room waits for you, and I shall 
be glad to see you. In the meantime, keep yourself warm by the Word 
of God within, and a good fire without. The Lord direct us in all 
things ! Oh for quietness and English friends ! " 1 

Two days after writing this, Fletcher addressed his curate, 
Mr. Greaves, as follows : — 

" Nyon, December 25, 1779. 
" My Dear Brother, — Glory be to God for His unspeakable gift ! 
May that Jesus, that eternal, all-creating, all- supporting, all-atoning, 
all- comforting Word, which was with God, and is God, and came, in the 
likeness of sinful flesh, to dwell among men, and to be our Emmanuel, 
God with us,— may He, by a lively faith, be formed in our hearts ; and, 
by a warm love, lie and grow in the manger of our emptiness, filling it 
always with the bread that comes down from heaven ! 

" Though absent in body, I am with you and the flock in spirit. You 
are now at the Lord's table. O may all the dear people, you have just 
now preached to, receive Jesus in the pledge of His dying love, and go 
home with this lively conviction, 'God has given me eternal life, and this 
life is in His Son / ' 

" Glory be to God in heaven ! Peace on earth ! Love and good-will 
everywhere ! Especially in the place where Providence has called us to 
cry, ' Behold ! what manner of love the Father has testified to us, 
in Jesus, that we, children of wrath, should be made children of 
God, by that only-begotten Son of the Most High, who was born for our 
regeneration, crucified for our atonement, raised for our justification, 
and who now triumphs in heaven for our sanctification, for our full 
redemption, and for our eternal glorification. To Him be glory for ever 
and ever;' and may all, who fear and love Him about you K say, for 
ever, Amen ! Hallelujah ! 

" Out of the fulness of my heart, I invite them to do so; but how 
shallow is my fulness to His ! What a drop, compared to an ocean 
without bottom or shore ! Let us, then, receive continually from Him, 



1 Benson's "Life of Fletcher;" and Wesley a?i Methodist Magazi?ie, 
1825, p. 744. 



Age 50.] 



National Distress, 



437 



who is the overflowing and ever-present source of pardoning, sanctifying, 
and exhilarating grace ; and, from the foot of the Wrekin, where you 
are, to the foot of the Alps, where I am, let us echo back to each other 
the joyful, thankful cry of the primitive Christians, which was the text 
here this morning, ' Out of His fulness, we have all received grace 
for grace.'' 

11 1 long to hear from you and the flock. How do you go on ? Let 
me know that you cast joyfully all your burdens on the Lord. Mr. 
Ireland sends me word, that Mr. Romaine told him you are not very 
well. Take care of yourself. Lay nothing to heart. Should your breast 
be weak, preach but once on Sundays ; for you know the evening sermon 
is not a part of our stated duty. I say this, that you may not over-do, 
and lie by, as I do. God direct, sustain, and comfort you in all things ! 

" Give my pastoral love to all my flock. May all see, and see more 
abundantly, the salvation of God ! May national distress be sanctified 
unto them ; and may they all be loyal subjects of the King of kings, 
and of His Anointed, our King ! May the approaching new year be to 
them a year of peace and Gospel grace ! I hope Molly takes good care 
of you. God bless her !" 1 

Fletcher refers to the "national distress." This was great. 
Parliament was excited. Ireland was in a state of veiled 
rebellion. England rang with reports of threatened invasion. 
The war with the American colonists had already added 
sixty-three millions to the national debt. Trade was para- 
lysed, and taxes were intolerable. Popery had been esta- 
blished in Canada, and had received encouragement in 
England. The Protestant Association had sprung into 
existence, and the Gordon riots were at hand. In the midst 
of this state of things, Fletcher wrote to a nobleman, whose 
name is not given, but who, probably, was Lord North, as 
follows : — 

"Nyon, December 15, 1779. 
" My Lord, — If the American Colonies and the West India Islands 
are rent from the Crown, there will not grow one ear of corn the less in 
Great Britain. We shall still have the necessaries of life, and, what is 
more, the Gospel, and liberty to hear it. If the great springs of trade 
and wealth are cut off, good men will bear that loss without much sorrow; 
for springs of wealth are always springs of luxury, which, sooner or 
later, destroy the empires corrupted by wealth. Moral good may come 
out of our losses. I wish you may see it in England. People on the 
Continent imagine they see it already in the English on their travels, 



1 Letters, 1791, p. 56. 



438 



Wesley s Designated Successor. 



[1780. 



who are said to behave with more wisdom and less haughtiness than 
they used to do." 1 

Lord North, King George the Third's Prime Minister, was, 
at this time, harassed by the American rebellion, incessantly 
assailed by the Opposition, and frequently threatened with 
impeachment. Probably, Fletcher's letter, of which the above 
is only a part, was intended to help him in his troubles. 
Though a foreigner by birth, John de la Flechere was a most 
loyal and devoted subject of King George. Hence, also, the 
following, taken from a letter to his curate, Mr. Greaves : — 

I " March 7, 1780. I long to hear from you. I hope you are well, and 
/ grow in the love of Christ, and of the souls bought with His blood, and 
\ committed to your care. I recommend to you the most helpless of the 
/ flock, — I mean the children and the sick, r They most want your help, 
and they are the most likely to benefit by rt ; for affliction softens the 
heart, and children are not yet quite hardened through the deceitfulness 
of sin. 

"I beg you will not fail, when you have opportunity, to recommend 
to our flock, to honour the King, to study to be quiet, and to hold up 
the hands of the Government by which we are protected." 2 

On the same day, Fletcher wrote to his friend and helper, 
Mr. William Wase, on another matter which was causing 
him considerable anxiety. His Methodist meeting-house in 
Madeley Wood had cost much more than he expected. The 
letter to Mr. Wase needs no further explanation, except 
that the work, ready to be printed, was, probably, his poem, 
in French, entitled, " La Louange." 



" My Dear Brother, — I am sorry the building has cost so much 
more than I intended ; but, as the mischief is done, it is a matter to 
exercise patience, resignation, and self-denial ; and it will be a caution 
in the future. I am going to sell part of my little estate here to discharge 
the debt. I had laid by ^50, to print a small work, which I wanted to 
distribute here ; but, as I must be just, before I presume to offer that 
mite to the God of truth, I abandon the design, and send that^sum to 
Mr. York. 

"Money is so scarce here, at this time, that I shall sell at a very 
great loss ; but necessity and justice are two great laws, which must be 



" NYON, March 7, 1780. 



1 Letters, 1791, p. 273. 

2 Ibid, p. 57. 



Age so.] William Perrone? s Unpublished Letter. 439 



obeyed. As I design, on my return to England, to pinch until I have 
got rid of this debt, I may go and live in one of the cottages belonging 
to the vicar, if we could let the vicarage for a few pounds ; and, in that 
case, I dare say Mr. Greaves would be so good as to take the other 
little house. 

"My dear friend, let us die to sin. Hold fast Jesus, the way, the 
truth, and the life. Walk by faith in Him ; and not by the sight and 
passions of the old Adam, (jjiope the sun of affliction, which burns 
poor England and us, will ripen us all for glory. Give my best love to 
all our friends in Christ, and tell them that the hope of seeing them 
does me goodyJ 1 

Fletcher was hard at work ; the weather was cold ; and, 
for the present, exercise out of doors was impracticable. 
The following, taken from an unpublished letter written by 
William Perronet, contains an amusing scene : — 

" Nyon, March i, 1780. As this is Mr. Fletcher's native village, no 
wonder that it agrees with him ; otherwise, it must be very trying to so 
tender a constitution as his ; for the weather here is much hotter in 
summer, and much colder in winter, than in England ; and the transitions 
from intense heat to extreme cold are often very sudden. 

" Mr. Fletcher was once told by two physicians (somewhere), that the 
benefit of exercise, for consumptive persons, must be estimated by the 
violence of it ; consequently, that riding on horseback was better than 
going in a carriage, that walking was better than riding, running than 
walking, and jumping better than all of them put together. Our worthy 
friend has scrupulously followed this maxim ; so that, whenever he does 
not take his little hasty rides (which by-the-bye frequently occurs), he 
allows himself, for exercise, not more than three minutes, from his studies, 
just as dinner is being served, and then, like harlequin, he takes about 
half a score such violent leaps and plunges across the room, that I am 
sojnetzmes in pain for the floor, and always for his bones." 

During the year 1779, Fletcher and William Perronet had 
lodged in the same house in Nyon ; now, as might be expected 
from the foregoing extract, William Perronet's state of health 
obliged him to seek a more salubrious situation. He went 
to Lausanne ; Fletcher remained at Nyon ; and was thus 
pictured by his friend in the month of July next ensuing : — 

" About half a year ago, we broke up housekeeping at Nyon. Poor 
dear Mr. Fletcher, with difficulty, procured a miserable lodging in the 



1 Letters, 1791, p. 58. 



440 



Wesley s Designated Successor. 



[1780. 



neighbourhood ; and I was obliged to go to Lausanne, which is seven 
leagues from Nyon. I submitted the more willingly to this, because he 
talked of spending some time at Lausanne. I have been disappointed 
in this respect ; but, once or twice, I have had the pleasure of seeing 
him at Nyon. I found him to-day sitting in his small apartment, sur- 
rounded with books and papers, writing, or, as he expressed it, 'finishing 
the first part' of one of his pieces. When the whole is likely to be 
finished, one cannot pretend to say." 1 

Fletcher intended to return to England in the month of 
September, but two occurrences prevented him. First of all, 
he mislaid a portion of the manuscript which he wished to 
publish before he left Switzerland, and had to re-write what 
was missing. 

"The misfortune I hinted at," said he to William Perronet, "was the 
mislaying of a considerable part of my manuscript. After giving it up 
as lost, I fell to work again ; went through the double toil ; and, when 
I had done, last night, I accidentally found what I had mislaid. This 
has thrown me back a great deal. The Lord's will be done in all things ! 
I thank God, I have been kept from fretting on the occasion ; though I 
would not for a great deal have such another trial." 2 

Added to this, and, perhaps, partly in consequence of it, 
his health relapsed. These, and other matters, are referred 
to in the following letter, addressed to his curate, Mr. 
Greaves : — 

"Nyon, September 15, 1780. 

"My Dear Fellow-labourer, — I had fixed the time of my 
departure for this month ; but now two hindrances stand in my way. 
When I came to collect the parts of my manuscript, I found the most 
considerable part wanting ; and, after a thousand searches, I was 
obliged to write it over again. This accident compelled me to put off 
my journey; and now the change of weather has brought back some 
symptoms of my disorder. I speak, or rather whisper, with difficulty ; 
but I hope the quantity of grapes I begin to eat will have as good an 
effect upon me as in the last two autumns. 

" Have patience then a little while. If things are not as you could 
wish, you can do but as I have done for many years, — learn patience 
by the thiitgs which you suffer. Crossing our will, getting the better 
of our inclinations, and growing in experience, are no mean advantages, 
and they may all be yours. 

"Mr. Ireland writes me word that if I return to England now, the 



1 Benson's " Life of Fletcher." 

2 Ibid. 



Age 51.] 



Religion in Switzerland* 



441 



winter will undo all I have been doing for my health for many years. 
However, I have not quite laid aside the design of spending the winter 
with you ; but don't expect me till you see me. I am, nevertheless, 
firmly purposed that, if I do not set out this autumn, I shall do so next 
Spring, as early as I can. 

"Till I had this relapse, I was able to exhort, in a private room, 
three times a week ; but the Lord Lieutenant will not allow me to get 
into a pulpit, though they permit the schoolmasters, who are laymen, 
to put on a band and read the Church prayers ; so high runs the pre- 
judice. The clergy, however, tell me that if I will renounce my 
ordination, and get Presbyterian Orders among them, they will allow 
me to preach, and on these terms one of the ministers of this town 
offers me his curacy. A young clergyman of Geneva, tutor to nry 
nephew, appears to me a truly converted man ; and he is so pleased 
when I tell him there are converted souls in England, that he will go 
with me to learn English, and converse with the British Christians. He 
wrote last summer, with such force, to some of the clergy, who are 
stirring up the fire of persecution, that he made them ashamed, and we 
have since had peace from that quarter. 

"There is little genuine piety in these parts; nevertheless, there is 
yet some of the form of it ; so far as to go to the Lord's table regularly 
four times a year. There meet the adulterers, the drunkards, the 
swearers, the infidels, and even the materialists. They have no idea 
of the double damnation that awaits hypocrites. They look upon the 
partaking of that sacrament as a ceremony enjoined by the magistrate. 
At Zurich, the first town of this country, they have lately beheaded a 
clergyman who wanted to betray his country to the Emperor, to whom 
it chiefly belonged. It is the town of the great reformer, Zuinglius ; 
yet there they poisoned the sacramental wine a few years ago. I mention 
this to show you there is great need to bear a testimony against the 
faults of the clergy here ; and, if I cannot do it from the pulpit, I must 
try to do it from the press. Their canons, which were composed by two 
hundred and thirty pastors, at the time of the Reformation, are so 
spiritual and apostolic that I design to translate them into English, if 
I am spared. 

" Farewell, my dear brother. Take care, good, constant, care of 
the flock committed to your charge ; especially the sick and the youizg 
Salute all our dear parishioners. Let me still have a part in your 
prayers, public and private ; and rejoice in the Lord, as, through grace, 
I am enabled to do in all my little tribulations." 1 

On the same day, Fletcher wrote to Mr. Thomas York : — 

' ' I have been so well, that my friends here thought of giving me a 
wife ; but what should I do with a Swiss wife at Madeley ? I want rather 
an English nurse ; but more still a mighty Saviour, and, thanks be to 



1 Letters, 1791, p. 60. 



442 



Wesley s Designated Successor. 



[178c 



God ! that I have. Help me to rejoice in that never-dying, never- 
moving Friend. 

"Having heard that my dear friend Ireland has discharged the 
greatest part of my debt, I have not sent the money ; but I hope to 
bring with me £100, to reimburse my friends in part, till I can do it 
altogether. But I shall never be able to pay you the debt of kindness 
I have contracted with you. I look to Jesus, my Surety, for that. Ma}^ 
He repay you a thousand-fold ! " 1 

To William Wase, the good old Methodist, Fletcher 
wrote, at the same time : — 

" Give my love and thanks to the preachers " (William Boothby and 
Jonathan Hern) "who come to help us. Enforce my exhortation to the 
Societies in much love. Go and comfort, from me, Mrs. Palmer and 
Mrs. Cartwright ; and, since God has placed you all in a widowed 
state, agree to take Jesus for a never-dying Friend and Bridegroom. 
Your Maker is your husband. He is all in all. What, then, have you 
lost ? Christ is yours and all things with Him. The resurrection day 
will soon come. Prepare yourselves for the marriage feast of the Lamb ; 
and till then, rejoice in the expectation of that day. I sympathize with 
our sickly friends, widow Matthews, M. Blummer, E. Whittaker, I. York, 
and S. Aston. Salute them kindly from me. Help them to trim 
their lamps, and to wait for the Bridegroom. Thank Thomas and 
Nelly Fennel for their love to the" (Methodist) "preachers^ and give 
them mine, and also give it to the little companies they meet with, to 
call for strength, comfort, and help, in time of need. Fare ye all well 
in Jesus ! I say, again, farewell ! " 2 

Fletcher's " Exhortation " to the Methodist Societies was 
as follows : — 

" To the Societies in and about Madeley. 

" Grace and peace, truth and love, be multiplied to you all. Stand 
fast in the Lord, my dear brethren. Stand fast in Jesus ; stand fast to 
one another ; stand fast to the vow we have so often renewed together, 
upon our knees, and at the Lord's table. Don't be so unloving, so 
cowardly, as to let one of your little company fall into the hands of the 
world and the devil ; and agree to crucify the body of cin altogether. 

" I am still in a strait between the work which Providence cuts out 
for me here, and the love which draws me to you. When I shall have 
the pleasure of seeing you, let it not be embittered by the sorrow of 
finding any of you half-hearted and lukewarm. Let me find you all 
strong in the Lord, and increased in humble love. Salute from me all 
who followed with us fifteen years ago. Care still for your old brethren. 



1 Letters, i79T,p. 62. 

2 Ibid, p. 61. 



Age 51.] The House of Fletcher s A T ativity. 443 



Let there be no Cain among you, no Esau, no Lot's wife. Let the love 
of David and Jonathan, heightened by that of Martha, Mary, Lazarus, 
and our Lord, shine in all your thoughts, your tempers, your words, 
your looks, and your actions. If you love one another, your little meet- 
ings will be a renewed feast ; and the God of love, who is peculiarly 
present where two or three are gathered together in the name of Jesus, 
will abundantly bless you. Bear me still upon your breasts in prayer, 
as I do you upon mine ; and rejoice with me that the Lord, who made, 
redeemed, and comforts us, bears us all ufton His. I am yours in 
Him, 

" J. Fletcher." 1 

For some time after his arrival in Switzerland, Fletcher 
lived in the house where he was born, a respectable old 
building, erected on an elevated site at the extremity of the 
town. Close at hand was the shady wood, where he used to 
read, meditate, and pray, and meet his flock of little children. 
Near the house was a terrace, from which the whole of the 
glorious lake of Geneva was visible ; and, in the distance, 
might be seen the city itself. Towering above all, there was 
the unutterably grand Mont Blanc. No wonder Fletcher 
spoke of the "pleasant apartment" where he was born, as 
having "one of the finest prospects in the world." For some 
reason, however, he now exchanged the house of his nativity 
for another not so enchanting. Hence the following letter 
to William Perronet, who was residing at Lausanne : — 

"Nyon, October 1780. 
"My Very Dear Friend,— I thank you for your letters. They 
have given me much pleasure, as I see that you will at last end your 
business, and get ready to set out in the spring with Mr. Ireland, who 
comes with his family, I know not where ; but I think he will spend the 
winter at or about Avignon. If you will go and join him, I shall be 
glad to go also, for the stream under this house does not make it very 
wholesome. 

" My brother thinks, as well as myself, that you may conclude upon 
the terms you mention. ' Better a dinner of herbs with peace, than a 
stalled ox and noise therewith.' 

" I hope to go to Lausanne, directly after vintage, to offer a manu- 
script to the censors, to see if they will allow its being published ; so I 
do not invite you to share my damj) bed. My sister was so kind as to 
look for another house, but we find none to let under a year. We are 
here travellers, so we must expect some difficulties and a good many 
inconveniences. 



1 Letters, 1791, p. 63. 



444 Wesley's Designated Successor, [1781. 



" If Mr. Ireland goes to Marseilles, you might go and see your cousin 
there. Lift up your heart, and see by faith our Lord and Saviour, our 
heavenly Kinsman and Brother ; and when you rise there, take by the 
hand of prayer your affectionate friend, 

"John Fletcher." 1 

Soon after this, William Perronet was seized with mortal 
illness. In a letter to the Vicar of Shoreham, Fletcher 
wrote : — 

" December 5, 1780. Our wise and good God sees fit to try my dear 
friend, your son, with a want of appetite and uneasiness in his bowels. 
He also often returns the little food he takes. Some time ago, he came 
to Nyon, from Lausanne, and we went together to Geneva, where we 
settled your affair with three of the Geneva co-heirs, upon the same 
footing as he had settled with those of Chateau d'Oex. He bears his 
weakness with much patience and resignation." 2 

Fletcher was now employed in finishing the poem, which 
he wished to publish before he left Switzerland ; but he 
delighted in spending as much time with his dying friend as 
possible. 

" Every night," says William Perronet, in a letter dated January 22, 
1 78 1, "after praying with me, he sings this verse at parting : — ■ 

" ' Then let our humble faith address 
His mercy and His power ; 
We shall obtain delivering grace 
In the distressing hour.' " 3 

Within three weeks after this, Fletcher's book was finished, 
and the business of William Perronet was ended. Fletcher 
wished to set out for England, but was still detained in 
Switzerland. Hence the following, addressed to Mr. Wase: — 

" Nyon, February 14, 1781. 

"My Dear Friend, — I thank you for your kind remembrance of 
me. I need not be urged to return ; brotherly love draws me to 
Madeley, and circumstances drive me hence. 

" I am exceeding glad that there is a revival on your side the water " 
[the river Severn], "and that you are obliged to enlarge your Room. 4 
I wish I could contribute to shake the dry bones in my parish, but I 



1 Wesley an Methodist Magazine, 1830, p. 831. 

2 Benson's " Life of Fletcher.' 

3 Ibid. 

4 The Methodist meeting-house. 



Age 51.] 



LetLr to Mr. Wase. 



445 



have no confidence in the flesh. What I could not do when I was in 
my strength, I have little prospect of doing now that my strength is 
broken. However, I don't despair, for the work is not mine but the 
Lord' s. If the few who love the Gospel would be simple and zealous, 
God would again hear their prayers for those who are content to go on 
in the broad way. I thank you for your view of the iron bridge. 1 

" My friend Ireland invites me to join him in the South of France ; 
and I long to see whether I could not have more liberty to preach the 
Word among Papists than among Protestants. But it is so little that 
I can do, that I doubt much whether it is worth while going so far upon 
so little a chance. If I were stronger, and had more time, the fear of 
being hcmged should not detain me. I trust to set out next month, and 
to be in England in May ; it won't be my fault if it is not in April. 

" I am here in the midst of rumours of war. The burghers of Geneva 
have disarmed the garrison, and taken possession of one of the gates. 
I had, however, the luck to get in, and to bring away my nephew, who 
is a student there. Troops are preparing to block them up. The Lord 
may, at this time, punish the repeated backslidings of those Laodicean 
Christians, most of whom have become infidels. This event may a little 
retard my journey, as I must pass through Geneva. It also puts off the 
printing of my manuscript, for there is nothing going on in that unhappy 
town but disputes, and fights, and mounting of guards. 

" Remember me in much love to Mr. Greaves, Mr. Gilpin, and the " 
[Methodist] " preachers who labour with us." 2 j 

At the same date, Fletcher wrote to Mr. John Owen, his 
schoolmaster at Madeley, as follows : — 

" Nyon, February 14, 178 1. I thank you, my dear brother, for your 
kind lines. I hope you help both Mr. Greaves and the " [Methodist] 
" preachers to stir up the people in my parish. Be much in prayer. 
Take counsel with Michael Onions, Mrs. Palmer, and Molly Cartwright 
about the most effectual means to recover the backsliders, and to keep 
together to Christ and to each other those who still hold their shield. 
Salute them kindly from me, and tell them that I hope they will give 
me a good account of their little companies " [Methodist classes] " and 
of themselves. 

" If I were not a minister, I would be a schoolmaster, to have the 
pleasure of bringing up children in the fear of the Lord. That pleasure 
is yours ; relish it, and it will comfort and strengthen you in your work. 
The joy of the Lord and of charity is our strength. Salute the children 
from me, and tell them I long to show them the way to happiness and 
heaven. Have you mastered the stiffness and shyness of your temper ? 



1 The bridge across the Severn at Coalbrookdale, the first iron bridge 
erected in England ; cast in 1779, under the direction of Mr. Abraham 
Darby. 

2 Letters, 1791, p. 67. 



446 



Wesley's Designated Successor. 



[1781. 



Charity gives a meekness, an affability, a child-like simplicity and 
openness, which nature has denied you. Let me find 3^ou shining by 
these virtues, and you will revive me much. God bless your labour 
about the sheep and the lambs ! 

"Read the following note to all who fear God and love Jesus and 
each other, assembling in Madeley church : — 

" My Dear Brethren, — My heart leaps with joy at the thought of 
coming to see you and bless the Lord with you. Let us not stay to 
praise Him till we see each other. Let us see Him in His Son, in His 
works, and in all the members of Christ. How slow will post-horses 
go in comparison of love ! Meet me, as I do you, in spirit ; and we 
shall not stay till April or May to bless God together. Now will be the 
time of union and love." 1 

For another month Fletcher was detained at Nyon, when 
he wrote to Michael Onions the following: — 



" I thank you, my dear brother, for your kind remembrance of me, 
and for your letters. I hope to bring my fuller thanks to 3 r ou in person. 

"Hold up your hands. Confirm the feeble knees. Set up an Ebenezer 
every hour of the day. In everything give thanks ; and, in order to 
this, pray without ceasing, and rejoice evermore. My heart sympathizes 
with poor Molly Cartwright. Tell her, from me, that her husband lives 
in Him who is the Resurrection. In Christ there is no death, but the 
victory over death. O ! let us live in Him, to Him, for Him, who more 
than repairs all our losses. My love to your wife. Tell her she promised 
me to be Jesus' s, as well as yours. My love to John Owen and all our 
other" [Methodist] " leaders, and by them to the few who do not tire 
by the way. With regard to the others, despair of none. Charity 
hopeth all things, and brings many things to pass. All things are 
possible to him that believeth ; all things are easy to him that loveth. 
God be with you, and make you faithful unto death ! This is my prayer 
for you, and all the Society, and all my dear parishioners, to whom I 
beg to be remembered. I have no place to write their names, but I 
pray they may all be written in the book of life. God is merciful, 
gracious, and faithful. I set my seal to His lovingkindness. Witness 
my heart and hand, "J. FLETCHER." 2 

Fletcher had promised to join Mr. Ireland at Montpelier ; 
but, meanwhile, William Perronet, who had returned to 
Lausanne, was so much worse in health, that it was impossible 
for him to accompany his friend. Two days before leaving 
Switzerland, Fletcher visited him, and, in a letter to the 
aged Vicar of Shoreham, wrote : — 



" Nyon, March 1781. 



1 Letters, 1791, p. 65. 



2 Ibid, p. 68. 



Age si.] Fletcher' *s Return to England. 



447 



"Miss Perronet and her mother 1 are as kind to him as my dear 
friends at Stoke Newington were to me when I lay sick there. His 
mind is quite easy ; he is sweetly resigned to the will of God." 2 

At Montpelier, Fletcher overtaxed his strength ; and at 
Lyons, on his way to England, wrote as follows to his sick 
and dying friend, whom he had been obliged to leave behind 
him : — 

" Lyons, A$ril 6, 1781. 
"My Dear Friend, — We are both weak, both afflicted; but Jesus 
careth for us. He is everywhere, and here He has all power to deliver 
us ; and He may do it by ways we little think of : 'As Thou wilt, when 
Thou wilt, and where Thou wilt,' said Baxter: let us say the same. It 
was of the Lord you did not come with me : you would have been sick 
as I am. I am overdone with riding and preaching. I preached twice 
in the fields. I carry home with me much weakness and a pain in the 
back, which I fear will end in the gravel. The Lord's will be done ! I 
know I am called to suffer and die. The journey tires me ; but, through 
mercy, I bear it. Let us believe and rejoice in the Lord Jesus." 3 

Three weeks after this, Fletcher preached in City Road 
Chapel, London, and, the next day (April 28), set out to the 
hospitable home of his friend, Mr. Ireland, at Brislington. 
At this time, one of the Methodist preachers, stationed in 
the Bristol circuit, was Thomas Rankin, who had spent nearly 
five years in America, and who, in 1778, had been driven 
home by the American rebellion. Hearing of Fletcher's 
arrival at Brislington, Rankin went to visit him, and wrote: — 

" I had such an interview with him as I shall never forget. I had 
not seen him for upwards of ten years. His looks, his salutation, and 
his address, struck me with wonder, solemnity, and joy. We retired 
into Mr. Ireland's garden; and he began to inquire concerning the 
work of God in America. I gave him a full account of everything that 
he wished to know. During this relation, he stopped me six times, and, 
in the shadow of the trees, poured out his soul to God, for the prosperity 
of the work, and for our brethren there. He several times called upon 
me, also, to commend them to God in prayer. This was an hour never 
to be forgotten. Before we parted, I engaged him to come to Bristol, 
on the Monday following, to meet the select band in the forenoon, and 



1 Probably William Perronet' s aunt and cousin; certainly not his 
mother and sister. 

2 Benson's " Life of Fletcher." 
8 Ibid. 



448 



Wesley* s Designated Successor. 



[178 



to preach in the evening. During the hour he spent with the select 
band, the room appeared as 'the house of God, and the gate of heaven.' 
At night, he preached from, ' We are bound to give thanks alway to 
God for you, brethren beloved of the Lord, because God hath from the 
beginning chosen you to salvation, through sanctification of the Spirit 
and belief of the truth.' The whole congregation was in tears. He 
spoke like one who had but just left the converse of God and angels. 
The different conversations I had with him, and his prayers and preach- 
ing, during the few days he stayed at Bristol and Brislington, were 
attended with such effects upon me, that, for some months afterwards, 
not a cloud intervened between God and my soul, no, not for one hour. 
Of all the men I ever knew, I never saw such love to God and man, 
such deadness to the world, such entire consecratedness to Jesus, as in 
him. It often appeared to me that his every breath was prayer and 
praise. He lived more like a disembodied spirit than a human being." 1 

When at Marseilles, on his way to Switzerland, in March, 
1778, Fletcher wrote a long letter, 2 to Miss Bosanquet, on 
Christian Perfection, and respecting his unpublished Essay on 
the New Birth. Miss Bosanquet replied to that, in a letter 
dated August 30, 1778. Strange to say, this letter was not 
put into Fletcher's hands until nearly three years afterwards. 
During this interval, there seems to have been no corre- 
spondence between him and the lady who was speedily to 
become his wife. On his return from Switzerland, he 
wrote her the following, which is now for the first time 
published : — 

" Brislington, near Bristol, May 1, 1781. 

" Dear Madam, — Your kind favour dated August 30, 1778, having 
been mislaid in a drawer and forgotten, did not come into my hands 
till this morning. I hope my speedy taking of the pen, to acknowledge 
so unexpected a favour, will atone for the forgetfulness of my friend. 

" You speak, Madam, of a letter from Bath; I do not recollect, at 
present, your having favoured me with one from that place. Is it my 
lot to be tried, or disappointed in this respect ? Well, the hairs of our 
heads, and the letters of our friends, are all numbered : not one of the 
former falls, not one of the latter miscarries, without the will of Him, to 
whose orders we have long since fully and cheerfully subscribed. 

" I have sincerely aimed at truth in writing the Essay you have been 
so kind as to peruse. 3 If I am not mistaken, Dr. Coke told me, when 
I passed through London, that he had it ; but I went out of town in 



1 Thomas Rankin's MS. Journal. 

2 See the letter dated " March 7, 1778." 

3 His " Essay on the New Birth." 



Age si.] Original Letter to Miss Bosanquet. 449 



such a hurry that I had not time to take it with me. I feel the propriety 
of your remarks, and shall make the alterations you mention, as soon 
as I shall have the manuscript. 

" I had thought of what you name, respecting a less plan of the 
doctrine of the New Birth,— apian calculated to make way for the larger 
essay, and to guide into the truth those who have never taken one step 
without the leading strings of prejudice, and who cannot judge of a 
doctrine if it be not brought within the narrow compass and focus of 
their understanding. I shall be glad of an opportunity of consulting 
you about that sketch, if I live to make it. I love truth, because I love 
Jesus ; but I am, every way, too feeble an instrument to defend and 
hold it forth with success. Your thought about it makes me pray with 
earnestness that I may, in some degree, answer your too favourable 
opinion of the importance of my little attempts to vindicate, or clear up, 
some part of the Gospel truths. 

" Alas ! what am I ? A cracked voice crying in the wilderness ; — a 
blunted pen scribbling in a village. Thanks be to grace, however, I 
sincerely desire to be a living shadow of the Divine Man, who is truth 
and love incarnate. I sincerely desire to embrace those great and 
precious promises given unto us, whereby we may become partakers of 
the Divine nature. I will not rest in the first Comforter, so as to slight 
that other Comforter , who is to abide with us for ever. I want not 
only to see Jesus altogether lovely, but to feel Him altogether -powerful 
and wise, both in myself and in all my fellow-Christians. Restless, 
resigned for this, I wait for this. My vehement soul is on the stretch. 
Some tell me I carry my views too high ; but how can that be, if God 
can do in us exceeding abundantly above all we can ask or think ? Is 
not the soul joined completely to the Lord, one spirit with Him ? Are 
we not called to come to the measure of the stature of the fulness of 
Christ ? Is a dwarf's state of grace the full prize of our high calling ? 
If this hope preys upon my feeble frame, I dare not cast it off : let me 
rather die a martyr to it than lose it. Why should there not be true 
martyrs for the hope, as well as for the faith of the Gospel ? At all 
events, let us wait for the great salvation of God the Spirit. Against 
hope, let us believe in hope that we shall see the royal priesthood 
clothed with Divine righteousness, and all God's saints rejoice and 
sing. 

" The openness with which you mention what some might call your 
enthusiasm, makes me reveal to you, Madam, what some call mine. 
I own I do not believe that Scripture repealed, ' Your young men shall 
see visions; your old men shall dream dreams.' 'These signs shall 
follow them that believe,' etc. (See Mark xvi. 17, 18). ' My sons and 
my daughters shall prophesy.' ' Desire spiritual gifts, but rather that 
ye may prophesy' (1 Cor. xiv. 2). Shall I offend you, if I ask you in 
simplicity the following questions ? Do you know any soul filled with 
all the fulness of God ? Anyone walking as Christ also walked, and 
able to say, in truth, 'As He was, so are we in this world?' Do you 
know any knit together in love, sharing all the riches of the full assur- 

29 



450 



Wesley s Designated Successor. [1781 



ance of understanding, to the acknowledgment of the mystery of God, 
and of Christ in us the hope of glory (Col. i. 27 ; ii. 2) ? Or, are the 
professors about you (far from having the full assurance of understanding 
with respect to this mystery) ready to say, when one speaks of this 
mystery, ' Thou bringest strange things to our ears ' ? 

" If you condescend to favour me with an answer, please to direct it 
to me at Madeley, Salop. There I hope to be next week. In the 
meantime, I pray the Lord to give us an understanding, that we may 
know more of Him, and be completely in His Son Jesus Christ, that is, 
in the true, Divine, and eternal life. May the living unction be and 
abide with you ! I ask it ardently for you ; condescend to ask it also 
for, dear Madam, your obliged friend and servant in the Gospel, 

" J. Fletcher. 

" P.S. — The third part, which I designed to add 1 to the ' Essay on 
the New Birth,' was an application to the disciples of Moses, of John, 
and of Jesus glorified ; to those who have the fear of God, the faith of 
the Son, and the love of the Spirit. My health is mended, thanks be to 
God ! but my lungs remain weak. Please to remember me in Christian 
love to Sister Crosby. 

*' Miss Bosanquet, 
" At Cross Hall, 

" Near Leads {sic), 
"Yorkshire." 

A few days after the date of this letter, Fletcher, accom- 
panied by Mr. Ireland, returned to Madeley, having been 
absent from his flock since November 1776, — four years and 
a-half. 



1 This was not added. 



1776—81.] Literary Work done in Retirement, 451 



CHAPTER XXII. 



LITERARY WORK DONE IN RETIREMENT. 



LETCHER'S long seclusion from public life is well 



A described in two lines of the poet Thompson : 

" Retiremeiit, rural quiet, friendship, books, 
Progressive virtue, and approving Heaven." 

The four and a-half years, during which he was away 
from Madeley, were spent in great weakness, but not in 
idleness. To say nothing of the works he published, while 
he remained in England, namely, his " Answer to the Rev. 
Mr. Toplady's 'Vindication of the Divine Decrees;'" his 
" Vindication of the Rev. Mr. Wesley's ' Calm Address 
to our American Colonies;'" his " American Patriotism;" 
his " Doctrines of Grace and Justice ; " and his " Plan of 
Reconciliation ; " he was employed, whilst in Switzerland, 
upon two of the most remarkable productions of his fertile 
genius. 

The first was a poem, in the French language, and was 
published in Geneva, with the title " La Louange ; " — a 
paraphrastic expansion of Psalm cxlviii. The work was 
conceived in England, but Was written in Switzerland, 
Fletcher says he " was favoured with the critical remarks of 
many persons distinguished for their learning, taste, and the 
works with which they had enriched the Church, and the 
Republic of Letters. At the end of certain Cantos, are 
Notes, or small Dissertations, serving to explain, or illustrate, 
some of the truths inserted in the body of the work." Ac- 
cording to the custom of the country and the age, before the 
book could be published, it had to be submitted to an 
official appointed to read manuscripts, previous to their 




452 



Wesley's Designated Successor. [1776—81. 



being printed ; and the following was the approbation given 
to Fletcher's Poem : — 

" I have read this work, which, in my judgment, everywhere breathes 
Piety, Faith, and Christian Charity. 

"De Bons, Censeur." 

After his return to England, Fletcher enlarged the work, 
and, in 1785, published an edition, still in the French lan- 
guage, with the title : — " La Grace et la Nature, Poeme — 
Seconde Edition plus complete. A Londre. De l'lmprimerie 
de R. Hindmarsh, Clerkenwell Close ; Chez T. Longman, 
dans Paternoster Row ; a Dublin Chez J. Charrnier, dans 
Kapel Street ; et pres du Pont de fer, in Shropshire, 1785," 
8vo 442 pp. By permission, the book was dedicated, " A 
la Reine de la Grande Bretagne." The dedication, dated 
" a Madeley pres de Coalbrook-dale, dans la Comte de Salop, 
le 6 de Sept. 1784," was characteristic, and as follows : — 

"Madam, — The parish, which, in the centre of your kingdom, pro- 
duced an iron bridge, 1 being always fruitful in singularities, has now 
produced a French poem : His Majesty gave a favourable reception to 
the model of our bridge, and will Your Majesty refuse the dedication of 
our poem ? The solidity of an iron bridge sustained by two rocks 
renders useless the support of a Royal hand ; but a work on devotion 
has not the same solidity. 

"A French Poem in England will always require support ; but, if the 
subject be religious, a powerful protection becomes doubly necessary ; 
and where can I find, among mortals, a more firm security than your 
august name ? Your court, Madam, admits the French language ; 
your generous heart cherishes moral virtues ; your exalted mind is 
pleased to encourage the cultivation of the fine Arts, among which 
poetry occupies the first rank. And, if a Queen of England permitted 
Voltaire to dedicate to her the praises of a French Monarch, 2 your 
piety, Madam, will not refuse those of the King of kings, celebrated in 
a poem, which has for its argument the divine song of a Sovereign, and 
the third Canto of which regards Kings and Princes. 

"May your Majesty, constantly surrounded with the most precious 
benedictions, never stand in need of the consolations offered to the 
affiicted in the ninth Canto ! And, when you have long beheld that 
happy and sweet peace flourish, which is celebrated in this poem, 3 may 



1 The bridge across the Severn, at Coalbrook Dale, regarded as one 
of the wonders of the age. 

2 Voltaire's " Henriade," printed in London in 1726, was dedicated 
to the Queen of George I. 

3 "An Essay on the Peace of 1783," also written in French, and now 
incorporated with " La Grace et la Nature." 



1776— 8i.i "La Grace et la Nature." 453 



you, without sorrow, exchange your heavy crown for one of those bril- 
liant diamonds reserved for princes, who serve God, and cause righ- 
teousness to flourish in the earth ! These are the ardent prayers of him 
who has the honour to be, with that profound respect, which virtue truly 
merits when united to greatness, 

" Madam, your majesty's most humble and devoted servant, 

"J. W. Fletcher." 

In his preface, Fletcher says : — 

"A former edition of this poem was entitled ' Praise, ' 1 because the 
writer's principal design was to impress his readers with the force of 
these words, ' Offer to the Lord the sacrifice of praise' It is now 
presented to the public with alterations, and the addition of ten new 
Cantos, under the title of ' Grace and Nature; ' or a descant on creation, 
as productive of the praise due to the great Creator." 

The book is a remarkable one. Every creature of God, 
animate and inanimate, except devils and damned men in 
hell, seems to be called upon to unite in offering praise to 
God. That Fletcher throbbed with the poetic fire cannot, 
in fairness, be denied. Perhaps some of his thoughts are 
fanciful ; and his work, in other respects, may be imperfect ; 
but many of his conceptions and utterances are worthy not 
only of being read, but of being remembered. The following 
quotations, taken from a translation of it by the Rev. Miles 
Martindale, may furnish a faint idea of its style and merits. 

Like other poets, Fletcher begins with prayer for super- 
natural inspiration : — 

" Thou Glorious Power, whom thrones supernal praise, 
Eternal source of life, of love, and grace ; 
While joyful throngs surround Thy shining seat, 
Behold a worm low-bending at Thy feet ! 
His darkness chase with Thy all- cheering ray ; 
On his weak reason shed celestial day ; 
His breast transform with renovating fire, 
With harmony divine his soul inspire." 

It has been already stated that a wood adjoined the house 
where Fletcher resided at Nyon, and that this was one of 
his favourite resorts for prayer, reading, and meditation, and 
that here he was accustomed to instruct his congregation of 



1 The title, in French, was "La Louange." 



454 



Wesley's Designated Successor. [1776—81. 



little children. There can be no doubt that the ensuing 
lines are descriptive of Fletcher's enjoyments in this sylvan 
cathedral : — 

"Ye solemn woods, where music loves to dwell, 
Whose zephyrs breathe the sweet balsamic smell ; 
Here kindles piety divinely bright, 
The heart replete with love and joyous light. 
To crown the lay, the feather' d nations raise 
Their notes with mine, to sound the Eternal's praise ; 
While innocence inspires the sacred song, 
Ten thousand throats the swelling theme prolong. 
Amid these happy groves, see Eden shine, 
Than Bourbons' pompous gardens, more divine. 
Fly the vile orchestra, where impious tongues 
Soft warble vice in loose lascivious songs. 
'Tis here, 'mid zephyrs' mild and melting strains, 
Lost Paradise her pristine bliss regains." 

One more quotation must suffice. It is taken from a long 
description of the Lake of Geneva. After apostrophizing the 
divine Creator, who has " in heaven " His " dwelling-place," 
Fletcher proceeds : — 

" Thy bless' d serenity, Thy palace fair, 
The sleeping waters of this lake declare. 
To give mankind an emblem of Thy might, 
An image of Thy skill supremely bright, 
Thy plastic hand drew the rough rocks around, 
And scoop' d the wondrous vale, a gulf profound ; 
Where winding Rhone his active force resigns, 
And, in wild fields of ice, resplendent shines. 
To shadow heaven, and the fair scene unfold, 
This lake with azure glows, and burnished gold ; 
WTiat brilliant rays, what awful glories stand, 
To show the wonders of Thy mighty hand ! ' ' 

To several of the cantos of his poem, Fletcher attaches 
lengthened notes, in prose ; most of them levelled against 
the infidelity of Voltaire, Rosseau, and the Unitarians. 

Leaving the poem, " La Grace et la Nature," another of 
Fletcher's works in Switzerland must be briefly noticed. This 
also was written in the French language; and after Fletcher's 
death was translated, and published with the following title : 
" The Portrait of St. Paul ; or, the true Model for Christians 
and Pastors : translated from the French Manuscript of the 



1776—81.] 



" The Portrait of St. Paul." 



455 



late Rev. John William de la Flechere, Vicar of Madeley. 
To which is added, Some Account of the Author, by the 
Rev. Joshua Gilpin, Vicar of Rockwardine, in the County of 
Salop. In two volumes. Shrewsbury. 1790." i2n\o, pp. 
377 and 330. 

Mr. Gilpin was an ardent admirer of Fletcher, as his 
biographical " Notes " amply show. He had been a resident 
in Fletcher's vicarage, and had enjoyed the unspeakable 
benefit of his example, prayers, and instruction. He writes : — 

"Before I was of sufficient age to take holy orders, I thankfully- 
embraced the offered privilege of spending a few months beneath the 
roof of this exemplary man ; and I well remember how solemn an 
impression was made upon my heart by the manner in which he received 
me. He met me at his door with a look of inexpressible benignity ; 
and, conducting me by the hand into his house, intimated a desire of 
leading me immediately into the presence of that God to whom the 
government of his little family was ultimately submitted. Instantly he 
fell upon his knees and poured out an earnest prayer that my present 
visit might be rendered both advantageous and comfortable, and that 
our society might be crowned by an intimate fellowship with Christ. 
This may serve as a specimen of the manner in which he was accustomed 
to receive his guests. 

" In his social prayers, he paid but little attention to those rules which 
have been laid down with respect to the composition and order of such 
devotional exercises. His words flowed spontaneously, and without 
premeditation, though always wonderfully adapted to the occasion. 
Nothing impertinent, artificial, or superfluous appeared in his addresses 
to the Deity. His prayers were the prayers of faith ; always fervent, 
often effectual, and invariably a mingled flow of supplication and grati- 
tude, humility and confidence, resignation and fervour, adoration and 
love. 

"Of his secret supplications, He alone can judge 'who seeth in 
secret.' His closet was his favourite retirement, to which he constantly 
/ retreated whenever his public duties allowed him a season of leisure. 
Here, in times of uncommon distress, he continued during whole nights 
in prayer before God ; and that part of the wall, against which he was 
accustomed to kneel, appeared deeply stained with the breath he had 
X^rjent in fervent worship." 

In the preface to his translation, Mr. Gilpin remarks : — 

" The following work was begun, and nearly completed, in the course 
of Mr. Fletcher's last residence at Nyon ; where it formed a valuable 
part of his private labours during a long and painful confinement from 



45$ 



Wesley's Designated Successor. [1776-81. 



public duty. 1 On his return to England, he suffered the manuscript to 
lie by him, intending, at his leisure, to translate and prepare it for the 
press. After his decease, Mrs. Fletcher discovered it, and the trans- 
lator, finding it a work of no common importance, was readily induced 
to render it into English. The Portrait of St. Paul was originally 
intended for publication in the author's native country, to which its 
arguments and quotations apply with peculiar propriety. It contains 
Mr. Fletcher's last and best thoughts upon some of the most important 
subjects that can occupy the human mind." 

Unfortunately, Fletcher's " Portrait of St. Paul " has, at 
the present day, but few readers. At the beginning of the 
century, it was one of the text-books of the Methodist itine- 
rant preachers ; and, even within the last forty years, the 
Methodist Magazine spoke of it as an " admirable work" and 
an " inestimable volume." 2 Methodists, now-a-days, too 
often prefer ornament to truth. 

The traits of St. Paul upon which Fletcher descants are 
the following : his early piety ; his Christian piety ; his 
intimate union with Christ by faith ; his extraordinary 
vocation to the holy ministry, and in what that ministry 
chiefly consists ; his entire devotion to Jesus Christ ; his 
strength and his arms ; his power to bind, to loose, and to 
bless in the name of the Lord ; the earnestness with which 
he began and continued to fill up the duties of his vocation ; 
the manner in which he divided his time between prayer, 
preaching, and thanksgiving ; the fidelity with which he 
announced the severe threatenings and consolatory promises 
of the Gospel; his profound humility; the ingenuous manner 
in which he acknowledged and repaired his errors ; his 
detestation of party spirit and divisions ; his rejection of 
praise ; his universal love ; his particular love to the faith- 
ful ; his love to those whose faith was wavering ; his love to 
his countrymen and his enemies; his love to those whom he 
knew only by report ; his charity towards the poor ; his 
charity towards sinners ; the condescension of his humble 
charity ; his courage in defence of truth ; his prudence in 



1 Mrs. Fletcher says, her husband told her the manuscript "was a 
rough draft, written in his illness when abroad, and which he intended 
to re-write and to improve." ("Mrs. Fletcher's Life," by H. Moore, 
P- 395-) 

2 Wesley an Methodist Magazine, 1845, p. 74. 



1 776-8 1.] " The Portrait of St. Paul.'" 



457 



frustrating the designs of his enemies; his tenderness toward 
others, and his severity toward himself ; his love never de- 
generated into cowardice ; his perfect disinterestedness ; his 
condescension in labouring with his own hands ; his respect 
for the holy estate of matrimony ; the ardour of his love ; 
his generous fears and succeeding consolation ; the grand 
subject of his glorying ; his patience and fortitude ; his 
firmness before magistrates ; his courage in consoling his 
persecuted brethren ; his humble confidence in producing 
the seals of his ministry ; his readiness to seal with his blood 
the truths of the Gospel ; the sweet suspense of his choice 
between life and death ; the constancy of his zeal and 
diligence to the end of his course ; his triumphs over the 
evils of life and the terrors of death. 

After this follows " The Portrait of Lukewarm Ministers 
and False Apostles ; " then Fletcher answers " Objections " 
to the " Portrait of St. Paul ; " and next, with consummate 
ability, states " The Doctrines of an Evangelical Pastor ; " 
and concludes with "An Essay on the Connexion of Doctrines 
with Morality," in answer to the infidel philosophy of Voltaire 
and Rosseau, recently deceased. The last two sections are 
invaluable, and exhibit Fletcher in all the strength of his 
sanctified genius. 

To make selections from so comprehensive a work as this 
is difficult, but the following specimens may be acceptable 
and useful : — ■ 

The faithful pastor. — "The disposition of a faithful pastor is, in 
every respect, diametrically opposed to that of a worldly minister. If 
you observe the conversation of an ecclesiastic who is influenced by the 
spirit of the world, you will hear him intimating either that he has, or 
that he would not be sorry to have, the precedency among his brethren; 
to live in a state of affluence and splendour, and to secure to himself 
such distinguished appointments as would increase both his dignity and 
his income, without making any extraordinary addition to his pastoral 
labours. You will find him anxious to be admitted into the best com- 
panies, and occasionally forming parties for the chase, or some other 
vain amusement. While the true pastor cries out, in the self-renouncing 
language of the great Apostle, ' God forbid that I should glory, save in 
the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto 
me, and I unto the world.' Oh ! ye, who preside over the household of 
God, learn of the Apostle Paul to manifest your real superiority. Surpass 
your inferiors in humility, in charity, in zeal, in your painful labours for 



458 Wesley's Designated Successor. [1776—81. 



the salvation of sinners, in your invincible courage to encounter those 
dangers which threaten your brethren, and by your unwearied patience 
in bearing those persecutions which the faithful disciples of Christ are 
perpetually called to endure from a corrupt world. Thus shall you 
honourably replace the first Christian prelates, and happily restore the 
Church to its primitive dignity." 

Writing sermons, and reading or deliveri7ig them. — " He, who 
spake as never man spake, rejected the arts of our modern orators, 
delivering His discourses in a style of easy simplicity, and unaffected 
zeal. We do not find that St. Paul and the other Apostles imposed 
upon themselves the troublesome servitude of penning down their dis- 
courses. And we are well assured that, when the Seventy and the 
Twelve were commissioned to publish the Gospel, no directions of this 
nature were given in either case." 

"What advantage has accrued to the Church, by renouncing the 
apostolic method of publishing the Gospel ? We have indolence and 
artifice, in the place of sincerity and vigilance. Those public discourses, 
which were anciently the effects of conviction and zeal, are now become 
the weakly exercises of learning and art. ' We believe, and therefore 
sfteak,'' is an expression, that has grown entirely obsolete among modern 
pastors. Nothing is more common among us than to say, ' As we have 
sermons prepared upon a variety of subjects, we are ready to deliver 
them, as opportunity offers.' 

" Many inconveniences arise from this method of preaching. While 
the physician of souls is labouring to compose a learned dissertation 
upon some plain passage of Scripture, he has but little leisure to visit 
those languishing patients, who need his immediate assistance. He 
thinks it sufficient to attend upon them every Sabbath-day, in the place 
appointed for public duty : but he recollects not, that those, to whom 
his counsel is peculiarly necessary, are the very persons who refuse to 
meet him there. His unprofitable employments at home leave him no 
opportunity to go in pursuit of his wandering sheep. He meets them, 
it is true, at stated periods, in the common fold ; but it is equally true 
that, during every successive interval, he discovers the coldest indiffer- 
ence with respect to their spiritual welfare. From this unbecoming 
conduct of many a minister, one would naturally imagine, that the flock 
were rather called to seek out their indolent pastor, than that he was 
purposely hired to pursue every straying sheep. 

" Since the orator's art has taken the place of the energy of faith, 
what happy effects has it produced upon the minds of men ? Have we 
discovered more frequent conversions among us ? Are formal professors 
more generally seized with a religious fear ? Do the wicked depart 
from the Church, to bewail their transgressions in private ; and believers 
to visit the mourners in their affliction ? Is it net rather to be lamented 
that we are, at this day, equally distant from Christian charity, and 
primitive simplicity ? 

" Reading approved sermons is generally supposed to be preaching 
the Gospel. If this were really so, we need but look out some school- 



1776-81.] 



Preaching. 



459 



boy of tolerable capacity ; and, after instructing him to read, with proper 
emphasis and gesture, the sermons of Tillotson, Sherlock, or Saurin, 
we shall have made him an excellent minister of the Word of God. 
But, if preaching the Gospel is to publish among sinners that repentance 
and salvation, which we have experienced in ourselves, it is evident that 
experience and sympathy are more necessary to the due performance of 
this work, than all the accuracy and elocution that can possibly be 
acquired. 

"When this sacred experience and this generous sympathy began 
to lose their prevalence in the Church, their place was gradually supplied 
by the trifling substitutes of study and affectation. Carnal prudence 
has now for many ages solicitously endeavoured to adapt itself to the 
taste of the wise and the learned. But, while ' the offence of the cross' 
is avoided, neither the wise nor the ignorant are effectually converted. 

" In consequence of the same error, the ornaments of theatrical elo- 
quence have been sought after, with a shameful solicitude. And what 
has been the fruit of so much useless toil ? Preachers, after all, have 
played their part with much less applause than comedians ; and their 
curious auditories are still running from the pulpit to the stage, for the 
purpose of hearing fables repeated with a degree of sensibility, which 
the messengers of truth can neither feel, nor feign." 

For want of space, further extracts from Fletcher's in- 
valuable, but neglected, book cannot be given here. Those, 
however, already presented deserve attention. Though written 
a hundred years ago, they are sadly appropriate to the state 
of things at the present day. 

As already stated, both " La Grace et la Nature," and the 
" Portrait of St. Paul/' were written in the French language, 
a strong presumptive proof that he intended to publish both 
of them in his native country. So far as the " Portrait of 
St. Paul" is concerned, that intention was not fulfilled. 



460 Wesley^ s Designated Successor. [1781. 



CHAPTER XXIII. 



THE FIRST THREE MONTHS AFTER FLETCHER'S 



LETCHER recommenced his ministry at Madeley on 



Sunday, May 27, 1781. 1 During his absence of four 
years and a-half, religion, in his parish, had not prospered. 
In a letter to his hospitable friend, Charles Greenwood, at 
Stoke Newington, he wrote : — 

"Madeley, June 12, 1781. I stayed longer at Brislington than I 
designed. Mr. Ireland was ill, and would nevertheless come hither with 
me ; so that I was obliged to stay till he was better. And, indeed, it 
was well I did not come without him ; for he has helped me to regulate 
my outward affairs, which were in great confusion. Mr. Greaves leaves 
me ; and I will either leave Madeley, or have an assistant able to stir 
among the people : for I had much rather be gone than stay here, to 
see the dead bury their dead. A cloud is over my poor parish ; but, 
alas ! it is not the luminous cloud by day, nor the pillar of fire by night. 
Even the few remaining professors stared at me the other day, when I 
preached to them on these words, ' Ye shall receive the Holy Ghost ; 
for the promise is unto you.' Well, the promise is unto us: if others 
despise it, still let us believe and hope. Nothing enlarges the heart 
and awakens the soul more than that believing, loving expectation." 2 

The following, addressed to Wesley, refers to the same 
subject, and also to other matters : — 



" Rev. and Dear Sir, — I rejoice to hear that your spiritual bow 
abides in strength. I would have wished you joy about it since my 
arrival, if I knew where a letter could overtake you. 3 I heartily thank 



1 Methodist Magazine, 1 8 1 1 , p. 312. 

2 Fletcher's "Life," by Wesley. 

3 The veteran evangelist was now visiting the Isle of Man, "east, 



RETURN 10 MADELEY. 



781. 




"Madeley, June 6, 1781. 



Age 51.] Fletcher Applies to Wesley for a Curate. 



461 



you for the directions you give me to hinder my bow, so far split, from 
breaking quite. Now I must imitate your prudence, or the opportunity 
of doing it will soon be lost for good. 

"I would do something in the Lord's vineyard, but I have not strength. 
I can hardly, without over-doing myself, visit the sick of my parish. I 
was better when I left Switzerland than I am now. I had a great pull 
back, in venturing to preach in the fields, in the Cevennes, to about two 
thousand French Protestants. I rode thirty miles to that place, from 
Montpelier, on horseback, but was obliged to be brought back in a 
carriage. And now that I am here, I can neither serve my church, nor 
get it properly served. Mr. Greaves owns, the place is not fit for him, 
nor he for it. He will go when I can get somebody to help me. Could 
you spare me Brother Bayley ? 1 It would be a charity. Unless I can 
get a curate zealous enough to stir among the people, I will give up 
the place : it would be little comfort to me to stay here to see the dead 
bury the dead. I thank God, however, for resignation to His will. As 
soon as I shall discern it clearly, I shall follow it ; for, I trust, I have 
learned in what state soever I am, therewith to be content. 

"What a blessing is Christ to the soul, and health to the body ! When 
you go to, or come from the Conference, be so good as to remember 
that you have now a pilgrim's house in the way from Shrewsbury to 
Broseley; and do not climb our hills without baiting. At our first 
interview, I shall ask your thoughts about a French work or two I have 
upon the anvil ; but which I fear I shall not have time to finish. Be 
that as it will, God needs not the hand of Uzzah, nor my finger, to keep 
up His ark. 

"I read, with pleasure and edification, y -our Arminian Magazine. 2 
Your storehouse is inexhaustible. The Lord strengthen you to Nestor's 



south, north, and west," and said, "I was thoroughly convinced that 
we have no such circuit as this, either in England, Scotland, or Ireland." 
(Wesley's Journal.) 

1 The Rev. Cornelius Bayley, at this time one of the Masters of 
Wesley's School at Kingswood. Cornelius Bailey was born near Whit- 
church, in Shropshire, about the year 1752. He was an excellent Hebrew 
scholar, and published a Hebrew grammar, which procured him a 
doctor's degree from a foreign university. Afterwards, when he took 
the same degree, D.D., at Cambridge, he delivered a Latin sermon, 
which was much applauded. As will soon be seen, he became Fletcher's 
curate. On leaving Madeley, he went to Manchester, where he became 
the founder and the minister of St. James's Church. This is not the 
place to give a detailed account of this remarkable man. Suffice it to 
say, he died, in Manchester, on April 2, 181 2, his last words being, 
" O my Saviour ! The Lord is with me!" His remains were interred 
in a vault of his own church ; more than forty clergymen attended his 
funeral ; the church was crowded, and more than a thousand of his 
friends had to stand outside. The Rev. John Crosse, afterwards so 
well-known in Bradford, preached the funeral sermon. {Christian 
Observer, 18 12, p. 477.) 

2 Wesley began to publish this magazine during Fletcher's absence 
on the continent. 



462 



Wesley's Designated Successor. 



[1781. 



years, or rather to the useful length of St. John's life ! It is worth living 
to serve the Church, and to teach Christians to love one another. 

"I am, rev. and dear Sir, your affectionate, though unprofitable 
servant, 

"J. Fletcher." 1 

Wesley's approaching Conference was to be held at Leeds, 
and to Joseph Benson, who had recently been married, 
Fletcher wrote as follows : — 

" I am, at present, without an assistant here, but hope soon to have 
Mr. Bayley, one of the masters of Kingswood School. If he come, 
I shall be at liberty to go to Leeds, and I hope God will strengthen me 
for the journey. A godly wife is a peculiar blessing from the Lord. 
I wish you joy for such a loan. Possess it with godly fear and holy 
joy ; and the God who gave her you help you both to see your doubled 
piety take root in the heart of the child that crowns your union. So 
prays, my dear brother, your affectionate friend, 

"J. Fletcher." 2 

Meanwhile, Fletcher had begun a correspondence with a 
lady hitherto unknown to him ; or rather she had begun a 
correspondence with him. Miss Ann Loxdale, daughter of 
Joseph Loxdale, Esq., of Shrewsbury, was now about twenty- 
six years of age. Two years before the date of her letter to 
Fletcher, she had been converted. In reply to her communi- 
cation, he said : — 

"Madeley, May 24, 1781. 
" Dear Madam, — I embrace the first opportunity of thanking my 
unknown friend for her kind Christian letter. As I believe you are 
sincere, and mean what your pen has traced upon paper, I may rejoice 
over a greater treasure than that of the Indies — I mean, the treaswe of 
a Christian friend ; for nothing but Christianity could give you courage 
to express any degree of friendship for so contemptible a neighbour. 
I shall preach here next Sunday, please God. If you can, and if you 
are not afraid of dining upon a bit of cold meat, come and dine with 
your new and yet old friend, who, though he cannot converse long with 
his friends, on account of his weakness, will find a quarter of an hour 
to assure you, that, in the faith, hope, and love of the Gospel, he is, 
" Madam, your obliged friend and obedient servant, 

"J. Fletcher." 3 

There cannot be a doubt respecting Miss Loxdale's ardent 
piety ; but she was in danger of falling into some of the 



1 Arminian Magazine, 1782, p. 48. 

2 Benson's " Life of Fletcher." 

3 Methodist Magazine, 181 1, p. 312. 



Age 5i.] Correspondence with Miss Loxdale. 463 



errors of the mystics. She had written to Wesley, asking 
his advice respecting the works of Madam Bourignon, which 
she had been reading. Wesley, in his reply, dated " June 1 o, 
1 781," told her that Madam Bourignon's "new and peculiar 
expressions " were " only shadows," not " an excellence, but 
a capital defect." Wesley continued, — 

"As I apprehend your mind must be a little confused by reading 
those uncommon treatises, I wish you would give another deliberate 
reading to the 'Plain Account of Christian Perfection.' You maybe 
assured there is no religion under heaven higher or deeper than that 
which is there described. I desire nothing, I will accept of nothing, 
but the common faith and common salvation ; and I want you to be 
only just such a common Christian as Jenny Cooper was." 1 

Meantime, Miss Loxdale and Fletcher had met and con- 
versed with each other ; for, in a long letter to her, dated 
twelve days after Wesley's, he gave her what he considered 
suitable advice, and said, " I never doubted your sincerity, 
my dear friend ; and can, without wavering, confess you a 
member of my Lord, a child of my heavenly Father, and a 
fellow-heir of the kingdom of heaven, purchased for penitent 
believers." 2 

This epistolary and viva voce intercourse grew into a 
sincere friendship, but nothing more than that. Miss Lox- 
dale became one of the most holy and devoted Methodists 
of the last century; and, in 181 1, at the age of fifty-six, 
married the Rev. Dr. Coke. A year afterwards, she died 
at York, and was buried in Dr. Coke's family vault at 
Brecon. 3 

Just at the time when Fletcher was writing his letters to 
Miss Loxdale, and giving her, most sincerely, the best 
advice he could, his heart was full of Miss Bosanquet, and, 
as will soon be seen, at the beginning of the month of June, 
he proposed to marry her. The reply was not unfavourable, 
and Fletcher at once decided to attend Wesley's Conference 
at Leeds, in the neighbourhood of which Miss Bosanquet 
resided. The following letter, addressed to Wesley, an- 



1 Wesley's Works, vol. xiii., p. 121. 

2 Methodist Magazine, 1811, p. 312. 

3 Drew's "Life of Coke," p. 346. 



464 Wesley s Designated Successor. [1781 



nounces this decision, and refers to the case of Miss Loxdale, 
and to an interesting incident in Switzerland : — 

"Madeley, June 24,. 1781. 
" Rev. and Dear Sir, — As to Miss Loxdale, I believe her to be a 
simple, holy follower of the Lord. Nothing throws unscrifttural mys- 
ticism down like holding out the promise of the Father, and the fulness 
of the Spirit, to be received now, by faith in the two Promisers, the 
Father and the Son, Ah ! what is the fienal fire of the mystics, to 
the burning love of the Spirit, revealing the glorious power of the 
Father and the Son, according to John xiv. 26, and filling us with all 
the fulness of God ? Plain Scripture is better than all mystic refine- 
ments. 

"When I was at Nyon, near Geneva, three ministers received the 
Word, and preached the Truth. When persecution arose because of 
the Word, the two pastors were afraid; but the curate of the first 
pastor, a burgess of the town, stood by me. This Timothy opened his 
house, when the pastors shut both their pulpits and houses ; and I 
heard him preach a discourse before I came away, worthy of you, Sir, 
upon the heights and depths of holiness. He wrote an apology for me, 
which I sent to the head of the persecuting Clergy, and so stopped the 
torrent of wrath. He made observations upon the mischief done to 
Christianity by bad Clergy, such as George Fox and you, Sir, would 
not disown. When I told him of you and the Methodists, he expressed 
a great desire to come to England, to hear you, to see the English 
brethren, and to learn the English language, that he might read your 
works, and, perhaps, translate some of them. He can have no living 
in his own country, because he will not swear to prosecute all who 
ftrofiagate Armi?iian tenets ; which is more honest than many of the 
Clergy, many of whom are Arians i Socinians, or Deists, and do not 
scruple to take the Calvinian Oaths. 

"I shall endeavour to wait upon you at Leeds, at the time of the 
Conference : in the meantime, I am, Rev. and dear Sir, your obedient 
Servant, and affectionate Son in the Gospel. 

"John Fletcher." 1 

Another of Fletcher's letters, belonging to this period, is 
too valuable to be omitted. His interview with Thomas 
Rankin, at Brislington, has been related. He now wrote to 
Rankin, as follows : — 

"Madeley, June 25,-1781. 
"My Dear Brother, — I thank you for your kind letter to me. I 
found myself of one heart with you, both as a preacher and believer, 
before I left Bristol, and I am glad you find freedom to speak to me 
as your friend in Christ. 



1 Arminian Magazine, 1782, p. 49. 



Age 51.] Letter to Thomas Rankin. 



465 



"By what you mention of your experience, I am confirmed in the 
thought, 1. That it is often harder to keep in the way of faith and light 
than to get into it. 2. That speculation and reasoning hinder us to get 
into that way, and lead us out of it when we are in it. 3. The only 
business of those who come to God, as a Redeemer or Sanctifier, must 
be to feel their want of redemption and sanctifying ' power from on 
high,' and to come for it by simple, cordial, working faith. Easily, the 
heart gets into a false rest before our last enemy is overcome. Hence 
arises a relapsing, in an imperceptible degree, into indolence and 
carnal security ; hence a dreaming that we are rich and increased in 
goods. 

"This is one of the causes of the declension you perceive among 
some of the Methodists. Another is the outward rest they have. 
Another may be the judging of the greatness of the work by the num- 
bers in Society. Be the consequence what it will, those who see the 
evil should honestly bear their testimony against it, first in their own 
souls, next by their life, and thirdly by their plain and constant reproofs 
and exhortations. 

"The work of justification seems stopped, in some degree, because 
the glory and necessity of the pardon of sins, to be received and e?ijoyed 
now by faith, is not pressed enough upon sinners; and the need of 
retaining it upon believers. The work of sanctification is hindered, if 
I am not mistaken, by the same reason, and by holding out the being 
delivered from sin as the mark to be aimed at, instead of being rooted 
in Christ, and filled with the fulness of God, and with j>ower from 
on high. The dispensation of the Spirit is confounded with that of the 
Son, and the former not being held forth clearly enough, formal and 
lukewarm believers in Jesus Christ suppose they have the gift of the 
Holy Ghost. Hence the increase of carnal professors, see Acts viii. 
16. And hence so few spiritual men. 

"Let us pray, hope, love, believe for ourselves, and call for the 
display of the Lord's arm. My love to your dear fellow-labourer, Mr. 
Pawson. Pray for your affectionate brother, 

"J. Fletcher." 1 

The - sentiments expressed in this valuable letter were 
important a hundred years ago ; and are far more important 
now. Methodists, and especially Methodist Preachers, ought 
to lay them seriously to heart. Holding them, Fletcher 
proceeded to the Methodist Conference of 1781, which 
began at Leeds on Tuesday, August 7, and concerning which 
Wesley writes as follows :— 

"1781. Sunday, August 5. At the old church in Leeds, we had 
eighteen clergymen, and about eleven hundred communicants. I 

1 Benson's '' Life of Fletcher." 

30 



466 



Wesley s Designated Successor. [1781. 



preached there at three ; the church was thoroughly filled ; and I be- 
lieve most could hear, while I explained the ' new covenant ' which God 
has now made with the Israel of God. 

"Monday, 6th. I desired Mr. Fletcher, Dr. Coke, and four more of 
our brethren, to meet every evening, that we mig-ht consult together on 
any difficulty that occurred. On Tuesday our Conference began, at 
which were present about seventy preachers, whom I had severally 
invited to come and assist me with their advice, in carrying on the 
great work of God. Wednesday, 8th. I desired Mr. Fletcher to 
preach. I do not wonder he should be so popular ; not only because 
he preaches with all his might, but because the power of God attends 
both his preaching and prayer. On Monday and Tuesday (August 
13 and 14) we finished the remaining business of the Conference, and 
ended it with solemn prayer and thanksgiving." 1 

Notwithstanding the evils even then existing, and which 
were lamented by Fletcher in the foregoing letter, these were 
glorious days, and their conferences memorable " times of 
refreshing from the presence of the Lord." Mr. Gorham, of 
St. Neots, was at the Conference of 1781, and wrote : — 

" Mr. Fletcher preached at five in the morning, from 2 Peter i. 4. 
Notwithstanding the earliness of the hour, at least two thousand 
persons were present, who appeared to listen to him with the deepest 
attention." 

Joseph Pescod, one of Wesley's itinerant preachers, in a 
letter to his wife, remarked : — 

" I arrived at Leeds on Saturday evening ; and on Sunday morning, 
at five o'clock, I had the happiness to hear that venerable servant of 
God, Mr. Fletcher. Never did I see any man more like what I suppose 
the ancient Apostles to have been. His text was 2 Peter i. 4: 'Whereby 
are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises.' He spoke 
particularly of the three great promises of God to man. The leading 
promise of the Old Testament, he remarked, was, ' The seed of the 
woman shall bruise the serpent's head.' On this promise, he observed, 
the saints lived four thousand years, and were saved through the Messiah 
to come. The other two, he said, were New Testament promises. 
First, the promise of the Holy Ghost, whom our Lord told His disciples 
He would send after His ascension. The dispensation of the Spirit is 
to renew us after the image of God ; which implies light, and power, 
and love. The third promise, on which he dwelt, was that of the resur- 
rection of the body. I think I never heard a sermon to be compared 
with it. I wish I could tell you every word. I had, also, the happiness 
to receive from his hand the bread in the sacrament of the Lord's 



1 Wesley's Journal. 



Age 51.] Fletcher the Guest of Miss Bosanquet. 



467 



Supper. The ordinance was administered in the old church, by Mr. 
Wesley, Mr. Fletcher, and nine other clergymen. Mr. Wesley preached 
in the afternoon, in the church, from Hebrews viii. 10-12." 1 

Wesley's Conference finished its business on August 14; 
but Fletcher, the happy guest of Miss Bosanquet, at Cross 
Hall, continued in the neighbourhood about three weeks 
longer, " preaching," says his delighted hostess, " in dif- 
ferent places, with much power." 3 A record of one of the 
meetings that Fletcher attended fortunately exists, and is 
here given almost without abridgment. 

James Rogers was, at this time, stationed at Sheffield ; 
but, no doubt, both he and his far-famed wife, "Hester Ann," 
attended the Conference at Leeds. After its sittings were 
ended, she, like Fletcher, still remained. On August 24, 
Fletcher came with Miss Bosanquet, and Mrs. Crosby, to 
dine at Mr. Smith's, in Park Row, and to meet the Select 
Society. Mrs. Rogers writes : — r 

" When I entered the room, where they were assembled, the heavenly 
man was giving out the following verses, with. such animation as I have 
seldom witnessed — 

" ' Near us, assisting Jesus, stand ; 

Give us the op'ning heavens to see ; 
Thee to behold at God's right hand, 
And yield our parting souls to Thee. 

" ( My Father, O my Father, hear, 

And send the fiery chariot down ; 
Let Israel's flaming steeds appear, 
And whirl us to the starry crown. 

" ' We, we would die for Jesus too ; 

Through tortures, fires, and seas of blood, 
All triumphantly break through, 

And plunge into the depths of God.' 

"After this, Mr. Fletcher poured out his full soul in prayer to God. 
Indeed, his every breath seemed to be prayer, or praise, or spiritual 
instruction ; and every word that fell from his lips appeared to be 
accompanied by unction from above. 

"After dinner, I took an opportunity to beg him to explain an expres- 



Wesleyan Methodist Magazine, 1829, p. 528. 
2 Moore's "Life of Mrs. Fletcher," p. 141. 



468 Wesley* s Designated Successor. 



[17S1. 



sion he had used in a letter to Miss Loxdale ; 1 namely, that, on all who 
are renewed in love, God bestows the gift of prophecy. He called for 
the Bible ; then read and explained Acts ii. ; observing, that, to pro- 
phesy in the sense he meant, was, to magnify God with the new heart 
of love, and the new toiigue of praise, as they did, who, on the day of 
Pentecost, were filled with the Holy Ghost. He insisted that believers 
now are called upon to prove the same baptismal fire ; that the day of 
Pentecost was the opening of the dispensation of the Spirit, — the great 
promise of the Father ; and that the latter day glory , which he believed 
was near at hand, should far exceed the first effusion of the Spirit. 
Seeing then that they, on the day of Pentecost, bore witness to the grace 
of our Lord, so should we; and, like them, spread the flame of love. 

" After singing a hymn, he cried, 'O to be filled with the Holy Ghost ! 
I want to be filled ! O, my friends, let us wrestle for a more abundant 
outpouring of the Spirit !' To me, he said, 'Come, my sister, will you 
covenant with me this day, to pray for the fitlness of the Spirit ? Will 
you be a witness for Jesus?' I answered, with flowing tears, 'In the 
strength of Jesus I will.' He cried, 'Glory, glory be to God! Lord, 
strengthen Thy handmaid to keep this covenant, even unto death ! ' 

" He then said, ' My dear brethren and sisters, God is here ! I feel 
Him in this place ; but I would hide my face in the dust, because I have 
been ashamed to declare what He has done for me. For many years, 
I have grieved His Spirit ; I am deeply humbled ; and He has again 
restored my soul.' Last Wednesday evening, He spoke to me by these 
words, ' Reckon yourselves, therefore, to be dead indeed unto sin ; but 
alive unto God through Jesus Christ ozcr Lord.' I obeyed the voice 
of God : I now obey it ; and tell you all, to the praise of His love, — / 
am freed from sin. Yes, I rejoice to declare it, and to be a witness 
to the glory of His grace, that I am dead unto sin, and alive unto 
God, through Jesus Christ, who is my Lord and King ! I received 
this blessing four or five times before ; but I lost it, by not observing 
the order of God ; who has told us, With the heart man believeth unto 
righteousness, aitd with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. 
But the enemy offered his bait, under various colours, to keep me from 
a public declaration of what God had wrought.' 

" ' When I first received this grace, Satan bid me wait awhile, till I 
saw more of the fruits : I resolved to do so ; but I soon began to doubt 
of the witness, which, before, I had felt in my heart ; and, in a little 
time, I was sensible I had lost both. A second time, after receiving 
this salvation, I was kept from being a witness for my Lord, by the 
suggestion, ' Thou art a public character — the eyes of all are upon 
thee — and if, as before, by any means thou lose the blessing, it will be 
a dishonour to the doctrine of heart- holiness.'' I held my peace, and 
again forfeited the gift of God. At another time, I was prevailed upon 
to hide it, by reasoning, ' How few, even of the children of God, will 



1 The letter already referred to, and dated June 22, 1781. See it in 
Methodist Magazine, 1 8 1 1 , p . 312. 



Age 51.] 



Sanctification, 



469 



receive this testimony ; man}' of them supposing every transgression of 
the Adamic law is sin ; and, therefore, if I profess to be free from sin, 
all these will give my profession the lie ; because I am not free in their 
sense : I am not free from ignorance, mistakes, and various infirmities; 
I will, therefore, enjoy what God has wrought in me ; but I will not say, 
I am perfect in love. Alas ! I soon found again, He that hideth his 
Lord's talent, and improveth it not, from that unprofitable servant 
shall be taken away even that he hath. 

" ' Now, my brethren, you see my folly. I have confessed it in your 
presence ; and now I resolve before you all to confess my Master. I 
will confess Him to all the world. And I declare unto you, in the pre- 
sence of God, the Holy Trinity, I am now dead indeed unto sin. I do 
not say, L am crucified with Christ, because some of our well-meaning 
brethren say, by this can only be meant a gradual dying ; but I 
profess unto you, / am dead unto sin, and alive unto God : and, 
remember, all this is through Jesus Christ our Lord. He is my 
Prophet, Priest, and King — my indwelling Holiness— my all in all. T 
wait for the fulfilment of that prayer, lliat they all may be one, as Thou,, 
Father, art in me, and L in Thee, that they also may be one in us : 
and that they may be one, even as we are one. O for that pure 
baptismal flame ! O for the fulness of the dispensation of the Holy 
Ghost ! Pray, pray, pray for this ! This shall make us all of one heart, 
and of one soul. Pray for gifts — for the gift of utterance ; and confess 
your royal Master. A man without gifts is like a king in disguise : he 
appears as a subject only. You are kings and priests unto God! 
Put on, therefore, your robes, and wear on your garter, holiness to the 
Lord. ' 

"A few days after this, I heard Mr. Fletcher preach upon the same 
subject; inviting all, who felt their need of full redemption, to believe 
now for this great salvation. He observed, ' As when you reckon with 
your creditor, or with your host, and, as when you have paid all, you 
reckon yourselves free, so now reckon with God. Jesus has paid all : 
He has paid for thee / — has purchased thy pardon and holiness; there- 
fore, it is now God's command, Reckon thyself dead indeed icnto sin ; 
and thou art alive unto God from this hour ! O, begin, begin to reckon 
now ! Fear not : believe, believe, believe ! and continue to believe every 
moment ! So shalt thou continue free ; for it is retained, as it is 
received, by faith alone. And, whosoever thou art that perseveringly 
believeth, it will be as fire in thy bosom, and constrain thee to confess 
with thy mouth thy Lord and King, Jesus. And, in spreading the 
sacred flame of love, thou shalt be saved to the uttermost.' 

" He also dwelt largely on those words, ' Where sin abounded, grace 
did much more abound.' He asked, ' How did sin abound? Had it 
not overpowered your whole soul ? Were not all your passions, tempers, 
propensities, and affections, inordinate and evil ? Did not pride, anger, 
self-will, and unbelief, all reign over you ? And, when the Spirit of 
God strove with you, did you not repel all His convictions, and put Him 
far from you ? Well, my brethren, ye were then the servants of sin, 



47o 



Wesley 1 s Designated Successor. [1781 



and were free from righteousness ; but now, being made free from sin, 
ye become servants to God ; and holiness shall overspread your whole 
soul, so that all your tempers and passions shall be henceforth regulated 
and governed by Him who now sitteth upon the throne of 3'our heart, 
making all things new. As you once resisted the Holy Spirit, so now 
you shall have power to resist all the subtle frauds or fierce attacks of 
Satan.' 

"Mr. Fletcher then, with lifted hands, cried, 'Who will thus be 
saved ? Who will believe the report ? You are only in an improper 
sense called believers who reject this. Who is a believer? One who 
believes a few things which his God has spoken ? Nay, but one who 
believes all that ever proceeded out of His mouth. Here then is the 
word of the Lord : As sin abounded, grace shall much more abound ! 
As no good thing was in you by nature, so now no evil thing shall 
remain. Do you believe this ? Or are you a ^//"believer only ? Come! 
Jesus is offered to thee as a perfect Saviour. Take Him, and He will 
make thee a perfect saint. O ye half believers, will you still plead for 
the murderers of your Lord ? Which of these will you hide as a serpent 
in your bosom ? Shall it be anger, pride, self-will, or accursed unbelief ? 
O be no longer befooled ! Bring these enemies to thy Lord, and let 
Him slay them.' " 1 

Mrs. Rogers was not a shorthand writer. She wrote from 
memory ; and though what she relates in the foregoing 
extracts is, no doubt, substantially correct, yet Fletcher 
must not be held accountable for every word she uses. The 
narrative, however, is very valuable, because it exhibits 
Fletcher at a most important epoch of his life, and exhibits 
him in his free-and-easy religious dishabille among his 
friends. Wesley says : — 

" There is a peculiar difficulty in giving a full account of either the 
life or character of Mr. Fletcher, because we have scarce any light from 
himself. He was upon all occasions very uncommonly reserved in speak- 
ing of himself, whether in writing or conversation. He hardly ever 
said anything concerning himself, unless it slipped from him unawares. 
And, among the great number of papers which he has left, there is 
scarce a page (except the account of his conversion to God), relative 
either to his own inward experience, or the transactions of his life. So 
that the most of the information we have is gathered up, either from short 
hints scattered up and down in his letters, from what he had occasionally 
dropped among his friends, or from what one and another remembered 
concerning him. 

"This defect was indeed, in some measure, supplied by the entire 



1 Dr. Coke's funeral sermon on the death of Mrs. H. A. Rogers, 179c; ; 
and " Experience and Letters of Mrs. Hester Ann Rogers." 



Age 51.] 



Fletcher visits Sheffield. 



47i 



intimacy which subsisted between him and Mrs. Fletcher. He did not 
willingly, much less designedly, conceal anything from her. They had 
no secrets with regard to each other, but had indeed one house, one 
purse, and one heart. Before her, it was his invariable rule to think 
aloud ; always to open the window in his breast. And to this we are 
indebted for the knowledge of many particulars which must otherwise 
have been buried in oblivion." 1 

No doubt this statement is perfectly accurate. Fletcher, 
like Wesley himself, was never a talkative religious pro- 
fessor ; and the outpourings of his heart, related by Hester 
Ann Rogers, may be regarded as exceptional. 

Nothing more need be added to the present chapter 
except the incident that, both in going to Leeds and returning 
to Madeley, Fletcher preached at Sheffield, where the husband 
of Hester Ann Rogers was at that time Wesley's " Assistant." 
He was the guest of Mr. Thomas Holy. The following is 
taken from an unpublished memoir of Mr. Holy, written by 
the late Rev. James Everett : — 

"The sainted Fletcher was twice an inmate of Mr. Holy's house. 
This extraordinary man preached twice in Norfolk Street chapel, on 
going to and returning from the Conference at Leeds, in 1781. One of 
of his texts was, ' The kingdom of God is within you ; ' and the other, 
' Behold, now is the accepted time ; behold, now is the day of salvation.' 
On both occasions, the chapel was crowded, and several clergymen 
were present. When he was introduced to Mr. Holy, his salutation 
was, 'Peace be to thee, my brother; ' and, on crossing Mr. Holy's 
threshold, he said, ' Peace be to this house.' Mrs. Brammah, the 
widow of an old itinerant preacher, and one of Mr. Holy's pensioners, 
was present, and observed that Mr. Fletcher frequently repeated the 
latter text, as if desirous to impress the company with its importance 
and its blessedness. ' Mr. Fletcher's conversation,' remarked Mr. 
Holy, ' was always instructive and impressive ; and I felt while I was 
with him as if I were in the presence of a superior being.' During his 
stay in Sheffield, Mr. Fletcher bathed every morning in a river, about 
half a mile distant from Mr. Holy's residence. His host always accom- 
panied him, and was much struck with his excellent swimming." 

This is a trivial matter, but trifles concerning " mighty 
men, men of renown," are worth preserving. 

A journey from Madeley to Leeds, a hundred years ago, 
was a somewhat serious affair. In an unpublished letter, 



Wesley's " Life of Fletcher." 



472 



Wesley' s Designated Successor. 



[1781. 



addressed to Mr. Ireland, Fletcher tells his friend that the 
journey occupied two days and a half, and that his new 
saddle was so hard that, to save himself from suffering, he 
was obliged to put the hair-skins, used for the protection of 
his chest, into his " breeches." In the same letter, he gives 
an account of the suicide of his " atheistical nephew ; " and 
concludes as follows : — 

" If Mr. Romaine be still with you, please to remember me in much 
love to him. I went yesterday to Salop, saw Mr. De Courcy, 1 and 
invited Mr. Rowland Hill to preach here to cement love." 



1 At that time the incumbent of the parish of St. Alkmond, Shrews- 
bury. (" Life of Rev. R. Hill," by Sidney, p. 137.) 



Age 51.] 



Letters to Ladies. 



473 



CHAPTER XXIV. 



FLETCHERS MARRIAGE. 



1781. 




LETCHER spent a happy month among the " elect " 



-A- ladies of Methodism in the North of England ; to wit, 
Miss Bosanquet, Hester Ann Rogers, Sarah Crosby, and their 
friends ; and, on his return to Madeley, he had to correspond 
with two others in the south, Miss Perronet and Lady Mary 
Fitzgerald. To the former he wrote as follows : — 



" My Dear Friend, — You want ' some thoughts on the love of God ; ' 
and I want the warmest feelings of it. Let us believe His creating, 
feel His preserving, admire His redeeming, and triumph in His sanctify- 
ing love. Loving 'is the best way to grow in love. Let us then look at 
the love of our heavenly Father, shining in the face of our elder Brother, 
and we shall be changed into love — His image and nature — from one 
glorious and glorify 'ing degree of love to another. Love always delights 
in the object loved. ' Delight thou in the Lord,' then, and 'thou shalt 
have thy heart's desire; ' for we can desire nothing more than the 
supreme good and infinite bliss ; both are in God. When, therefore, 
we love God truly, we delight in what He is ; we share in His infinite 
happiness ; and, by divine sympathy, His throne of glory becomes ours; 
for true love rejoices in all the joy of the object to which it cleaves. 

" Add to this, that when we love God we have always our hearts' 
desire ; for we love His will, His desires become ours, and ours are 
always perfectly resigned to His. Now as God does whatsoever He 
pleases, both in heaven and earth, His lovers have always their hearts' 
desire, forasmuch as they always have His will, which is theirs. Sub- 
mitting our private will to His is only preferring a greater good to a 
less, and we are called to do it in afflictions. 

" Farewell, my dear friend, and excuse these reflections, which you 
could make much better than your humble servant, 



"Madeley, September 4, 1781. 



<< J. Fletcher." 



1 Letters, 1791, p. 277. 



474 Wesley s Designated Successor. [1781. 



An excellent love-letter, from one who was now the 
declared lover of Mary Bosanquet. 

Lady Mary Fitzgerald wished to visit Fletcher at Madeley, 
and to her he wrote the following : — 

" Madeley, September 3, 1 781 . 

" My Much-honoured Lady, — Two days ago I came here, after 
an absence of above a month ; and yesterday I received your letter, 
without date, which has been, I am told, waiting here some time. 

" What a pity I did not rejoice sooner in the good news you send me, 
— that you desire to be entirely devoted to God. Indeed, complaints 
follow ; but heaven is in that holy desire. If you cultivate it, it will 
produce all that conformity to a holy God, which love can bring to a 
human soul. As for your complaints, they are the natural expressions 
of that repentance which precedes the coming of the Comforter, who is 
to abide with us for ever. I am ready to rejoice, or to mourn with my 
honoured friend ; and I have abundant cause to do both with respect to 
myself, my ministrations, the Church, and my people. 

"And will you, indeed, find it in your heart to honour my house with 
your presence, and perfume also with your prayers the plain apartment 
occupied by your friend Johnson ? 1 I wonder at nothing on earth, when 
I consider the condescension with which Emmanuel came down from 
heaven and filled a stable with His glory. Your time, my condescend- 
ing friend, will suit me best. You will be queen in my-hennitage ; the 
Lord will rule in our hearts ; and you will command, under Him, within 
our walls. You smile, perhaps, at the vastness of your new empire ; 
but if you can be content and happy in God in my homely solitude, you 
will make greater advances towards bliss than if you obtained the Prin- 
cipality of Wales. But if you cannot be happy with Jesus, prayer, 
praise, godly conversation, and retirement, expect a disappointment. 
However, my honoured friend, if you come, come as the serious Catholics 
go on a pilgrimage, as French noblemen go to the Carthusian Convent 
at La Trappe, as the French king's aunts went to the Carmelites, — 
come and do evangelical penance. Our good friend Johnson will tell 
you of an upper room where we crucify our old man, and have had many 
a visit from the new. If you do not bring her with you. bring her faith, 
which brought Him down, and then you shall not pine for the company 
of earthly princes. The Prince of Peace Himself will keep His court in 
our cottage, and your heart shall be one of His favourite thrones." 2 

From these Christian ladies, the reader's attention must 
now be directed to another. 

1 Probably Ann Johnson, who was a member of the Methodist Society 
in London sixty years ; a class-leader, thirty-seven ; who died at the 
age of eighty in 1828, and whose remains were interred in the burial- 
ground of City Road Chapel. See Stevenson's "City Road Chapel," 
p. 458. 

2 Letters, 1791, p. 276. 



Age 51.] 



Miss Bosanquet. 



475 



Mary Bosanquet, oddly enough, was born in the same 
month, and on the same day of the month, as Fletcher ; but 
there was this difference — she was ten years younger than he. 
Her birth took place in 1739, the year in which Methodism 
was cradled. Her father was "one of the chief merchants in 
London," 1 and "lord of the manor of Leytonstone, in Essex." 2 
The place of her nativity was Forest House, a fine old mansion, 
three stories high, still standing in its own beautiful and 
spacious grounds, about a mile from Leyton, and still owned 
by a member of the Bosanquet family (S. R. Bosanquet, Esq.), 
who has recently given a plot of ground in the main street 
of the town on which to build the " Mary Fletcher Memorial 
Chapel." 

By means of a Methodist servant, Mary Bosanquet found 
peace with God, through faith in Jesus Christ, when she was 
only eight years old. At the age of thirteen, she became 
acquainted with Mrs. Lefevre, whose admirable " Letters on 
Religious Subjects " used to be one of the favourite books 
of the early Methodists ; and concerning which Wesley him- 
self testified : " The ' Letters ' are patterns of truly polite 
epistolary correspondence; expressing the noblest sentiments 
in the most elegant manner, in the purest, yea, and finest 
language." 3 At the house of Mrs. Lefevre, Miss Bosanquet 
was introduced to a number of godly people, many of them 
Methodists. When fourteen years of age, she was confirmed 
in St. Paul's Cathedral, and began to receive the sacrament' 
of the Lord's Supper. 

Soon after this, her father and mother thought her 
"righteous over much," and great uneasiness, on both sides, 
followed. The parents were members of the Church of 
England ; but, like many other professedly Christian people, 
they loved gaiety and worldly pleasure. Their daughter 
grieved them, because she attired herself plainly, and objected 
to go to balls and theatres. In the midst of this unpleasant- 
ness, she became acquainted with Sarah Ryan and Sarah 
Crosby, and, at their humble dwelling, in Christopher Alley, 



1 " Life of Rev. H. Venn," p. 376. 

2 " Sermon on the death of Mrs. Fletcher," by John Hodson, p. 47. 

3 Preface to the Letters. 



47 6 Wesley* s Designated Successor. [1781. 



Moorfields, was accustomed to meet companies of the Old 
Foundery Methodists. Meanwhile, the unhappiness at home 
increased. 

At the age of twenty-one, Miss Bosanquet came into 
possession of " a small fortune and, for her own comfort 
and that of her family, she left the parental home, and rented 
two unfurnished rooms in the house of Mrs. Gold, in Hoxton 
Square. She " hired a sober girl ;" her mother gave her two 
beds ; and she was driven to her lodgings in her father's 
coach. She reached her new home about eight o'clock at 
night. She had no candle. The people of the house she 
had never seen. She borrowed a table ; and the window 
seat served her as a chair. Her supper consisted of bread, 
"rank salt butter, and water ;" but she says, she "could truly 
say, ' I eat my meat with gladness and singleness of heart? 
The bedstead was not, as yet, put up, and, therefore, she 
laid upon the floor ; " and the windows" of the bedless bed- 
room " having no shutters, and it being a bright moonlight 
night," she remarks, " the sweet solemnity thereof well agreed 
with the tranquillity of my spirit. 

Her " maid was dull and ignorant, though good ;" and 
she herself " knew little more of the world than" did her 
maid, " having been used to so different a way of life." 
Just at this juncture, ill-health obliged Sarah Ryan to leave 
Wesley's meeting-house in Bristol, and to return to London, 
where she lodged with her sister. Here her illness became 
serious ; and Miss Bosanquet served, as her nurse, "night and 
day." "After a time," writes Miss Bosanquet, "the Lord was 
pleased to restore her to health ; and, having one heart, one 
mind, and one purse, we agreed that one habitation also 
would be most profitable ;" and, accordingly, the two now 
resided together at Hoxton. 

On March 24, 1763, Miss Bosanquet and Sarah Ryan 
removed from Hoxton to Leytonstone, and occupied a 
house belonging to the former. Miss Bosanquet told her 
father that she intended to have Methodist preaching in her 
house ; her father made no objection, but remarked, " If a 
mob should pull your house about your ears, I cannot hinder 
them." She and Sarah Ryan began to hold meetings, on 
Thursday nights, at which they " read a chapter, and some- 



Age 5i.] Miss Bosanquei 's Orphanage at Ley tomtom. 477 



times spoke from it." They also gathered a Methodist class, 
of twenty-five members ; and, in due time, Wesley sent his 
Itinerant, John Murlin, to preach to them. Thus began 
Methodism at Leytonstone. " Sometimes on Sundays, 
when the nights were dark, a mob would collect at the gate" 
of Miss Bosanquet's domestic cathedral, " and throw dirt at 
the people as they went out ; after which, they used to come 
into the yard, and, putting their faces to a window, which 
was without shutters, would roar and howl like wild beasts." 

At the first, Miss Bosanquet's family at Leytonstone 
consisted of herself, her maid, Sarah Ryan, and " Sally 
Lawrence, 1 a child about four years old, whom" she had 
" taken from the side of her mother's coffin." In a little 
while, five other orphans were admitted ; and it became 
necessary to employ Ann Tripp 2 to serve as their governess. 
Miss Bosanquet writes : " Some serious women also were 
added to our household, and each had their duties and 
employments assigned them. In the whole, we received 
thirty-five children, and thirty-four grown persons, but not 
all at one time." Thus did Miss Bosanquet turn her dwelling 
into a chapel, an orphanage, and a poor-house. All in the 
house, herself included, wore the same kind of dress, made 
of "a dark purple cotton ;" and all dined at the same table, 
which was " five yards long," and stood in the hall. Here 
also they all assembled " for morning and evening devotion, 
and on several other occasions." 

Miss Bosanquet soon found that her family was larger 
than her income could maintain ; but even this did not 
discourage her, as she was at perfect liberty to spend her 
capital. 

Most of the children when admitted to her house " were 
naked, full of vermin, and some of them were afflicted with 



1 Sarah Lawrence was the niece of Sarah Ryan. She lived with her 
benefactress until her death, which occurred at Madeley, on December 3, 
1800. Like Mrs. Fletcher, for several years, she was a ftreacheress, 
and very useful. 

2 Ann Tripp was converted under the ministry of Wesley and Thomas 
Maxfield. After the marriage of Miss Bosanquet and her removal to 
Madeley, she settled at Leeds, and, at the time of her death, in 1823, 
was one of the oldest leaders of the Leeds Society. ( Wesley an Metho- 
dist Magazine, 1823, p. 706.) 



478 



Wesley s Designated Successor. 



[1781. 



disagreeable distempers. The first thing was to clean and 
clothe them, and attend to their health ; which usually was 
followed with much success." 

" The eldest of the children arose between four and five ; the younger 
not much later. At half-an-hour after six," says Miss Bosanquet, "we 
had family prayer ; at seven, we breakfasted together on herb tea, or 
milk porridge. The small children then went into the garden till eight. 
At eight, the bell rang for school, which continued till twelve. Then, 
after a few minutes spent in prayer, the children came down to us, when 
we either walked out with them, or, if the weather did not permit, we 
found them some employment in the house, endeavouring, at the same 
time, to give them both instruction and recreation. At one, we dined ; 
about two, the bell rang again for school ; and, at five, they returned 
to us, and were employed as before till supper time. Then, after family 
prayer, they were washed, and were put to bed at eight. Four or five 
of the bigger girls were each week kept out of the school, by turns, and 
employed in house-work, cooking, etc., that they might be accustomed 
to every sort of business ; and there was work enough in so large a 
family. Several of the children were very young, though I do not 
remember we had any under two years, except one of about a month 
old, which was laid, very neatly dressed, one night late at our door ; 
but it lived only a fortnight, being full of humours, probably derived 
from its parents. 

"We had, I think, never more than ten grown persons in the family 
at one time, who were not invalids ; nor do I remember above five or 
six altogether in health. The children also, for the first few years, suffered 
under various disorders ; for we did not refuse either old or young, on 
account of their being sick or helpless." 

Miss Bosanquet, as might be expected, was soon involved 
in pecuniary embarrassments. Just about this period, a young 
lady of fortune, Miss Lewen, came to board and lodge with 
her, and also brought two children of whom she had taken 
charge. After residing about half a year in this unique 
retreat at Leytonstone, — chapel, orphanage, school, poor- 
house, and infirmary all combined in one, — Miss Lewen 
wished to make a new will, and to bequeath her hostess " a 
large sum of money." Miss Bosanquet objected, because 
Miss Lewen had already " left the bulk of her estate (which 
was large) to charitable uses." In 1766, Miss Lewen became 
suddenly very ill; and, one night, while some of the inmates 
of the house were watching at her side, she cried, " Give me 
pen and paper ; I cannot die easy, unless I write something 
of my mind concerning Sister Bosanquet having .£2,000. 



Age 51.] Miss Bosanquet'* s Fortune and her Debts. 479 



Pen and paper were supplied, and the writing was written ; 
but, of course, it was illegal and worthless. Miss Lewen 
died ; but Miss Bosanquet, instead of receiving the £2,000, 
which Miss Lewen wished her to have, received not a farthing, 
and was considerably out of pocket on her dead friend's 
account. 

About the beginning of 1765, Miss Bosanquet's father 
died ; and nine months afterwards her mother. By his will, 
her father bequeathed her £4,500, to be invested by her 
trustees for her benefit ; and, when she married with their 
approval and consent, this amount of money was to be trans- 
ferred to herself, and to be absolutely at her own disposal. 1 

From a letter, written by S. Bosanquet, Esq., and dated 
"Forest House, October 15, 1 78 1," it appears that Miss 
Bosanquet had altogether a fortune of not less than £10,500, 
— a large sum, when it is remembered that money then was 
about three or four times the value of money now. Mr a 
Bosanquet's letter was addressed to his sister, and in it he 
says : — 

£ 

" You had Leytonstone estate, valued at .... 3,000 

You had from my grandmother ...... 2,500 

You had the savings of Leyton estate till you came of age . 500 
You had by my father's will ...... 4,500 

^io,5oo"s 



With the exception of her father's bequest, the whole of 
this money was at her own disposal, and, at the time of her 
marriage, was entirely spent, not on herself, but solely on 
behalf of others. Added to this, she was also, to a serious 
amount, in debt ; but more of this anon. 

About three years after the death of Miss Bosanquet's 
father, Richard Taylor, a good and well-meaning man, " left 
his wife and young family" in Yorkshire, "and came to London 
in hope of settling with his creditors." Sarah Crosby, who 
was now resident in Miss Bosanquet's house, and John Murlin, 
one of the itinerant preachers stationed in the London Circuit, 



1 " Probate of Mr. Bosanquet's Will." 

2 Unpublished letter. 



Wesley* s Designated Successor, [1781 



recommended Taylor, the improvident debtor, to Miss Bosan- 
quet's notice, and, for some time, he also became a member 
of her motley household. This unfortunate event created a 
world of trouble. By her father's bequest, Miss Bosanquet's 
income was increased ; but her income was not equal to 
her expenses. Added to this, Sarah Ryan's health entirely 
failed ; and, partly on her account, and also for other reasons, 
Miss Bosanquet entertained the thought of removing her 
family to Yorkshire. Accordingly, on June 7, 1768, she 
and her two friends, Sarah Ryan and Sarah Crosby, set out, 
in a chaise, on this long and tiresome journey, Richard Taylor 
accompanying them on horseback. For seven weeks, they 
lived in the house of Taylor's father-in-law, when they pro- 
cured a house for themselves at Gildersome, a village in the 
parish ofBatley, and about four miles and a half from Leeds. 
At the same time (on August 17, 1768), Sarah Ryan died ; 
and this event augmented Miss Bosanquet's anxieties, and 
affected her health. She writes : — 

" My health began to fail. For three years, I had had much fatigue 
in nursing my dear friend. I grew large, and had dropsical symptoms. 
My soul, also, was in a low and cold state. My path was strewed with 
many perplexities. My family consisted of thirty persons, some of whom 
were rather unruly. I saw the need of taking the reins into my own 
hands, and supplying the place of my friend Ryan. But this deter- 
mination was very difficult to execute ; and I daily and hourly felt my 
insufficiency. While she was alive, I considered her as a mother, and 
desired her to allot me my employments, as she did in the case of the 
young women. These were, 1. An attention to the spiritual affairs of 
the family. 2. Taking care for their sustenance. 3. Instructing the 
children. 4. Meeting each member of the family, one by one, at fixed 
times. 5. Superintending, by turns, the more public meetings of the 
Society. 6. Attending my friend in her frequent illnesses ; with the 
direction and management of the sick. But the care of the kitchen, 
buying stores, managing the needlework, and many other things be- 
longing to housekeeping, I was quite unaccustomed to. While I lived 
in my father's house, I saw very little of domestic affairs, because we 
lived rather high. 

" Beside, the manner of life in Yorkshire was entirely different from 
what I had been used to about London. Here wheat was to be bought 
to be made into flour ; bread to be made ; cows to be managed ; and 
men-servants to be directed. And when I had provided as well as I 
could, some persons in my family would despisingly say, my victuals 
were not worth eating, and that I knew not how to order anything. 
The house was large, and there was land to it ; but, one day, Richard 



age si.] Miss Bosanquet turns Farmer and Maltster. 481 



Taylor, whom I had employed in ordering the out-door affairs, brought 
me word of a farm very cheap, on which were malt-kilns, a small house, 
and many out-buildings. The farm was large, and he thought if, 
besides the farm-house, we were to build one big enough for our family, 
it would be cheaper than to rent a house. I went to Leeds to consult 

the most judicious of my friends ; in particular Mr. R , a man well 

acquainted with business, and the most intimate friend I had in York- 
shire. He replied, ' Had you waited a dozen years, you might not have 
met with such an opportunity. Richard Taylor knows well how to 
manage, if you do not ; and I have no doubt the farm will clear you 
^150 a year, which will be good interest for your money. 

" I prayed for light, bought the estate, formed the plan for the house, 
and set about it. But I found building no cheaper in Yorkshire than in 
the south, or but little so. It cost a good deal more than was at first 
proposed. The farm took much money to stock it, and to bring it into 
order ; and, as I had not sufficient for all the expenses, I was obliged 
to take up money on interest, which I hoped to pay off at the rate of 
^50 a year. The malt-kilns seemed to answer well, and cleared the 
first year ^50, above all expenses. 

" I found my mind much united to Brother and Sister Taylor. I strove 
to remove their burdens, and went in person to their creditors. After 
meeting with some opposition, I got their affairs settled, at the expense 
of between two and three hundred pounds. 

" My perplexities increased. The farm had sunk a very large sum 
to bring it into order, and the kilns took much money to work them, 
a great deal of which lay scattered up and down in debts, owing to me 
from lesser maltsters. I also saw that Richard Taylor went too far ; 
that he was inclined to venture much ; that he kept too many men ; and 
that he gave a great deal too much credit. 

" I lessened my family all I could, by putting out some of the bigger 
children to trades, or servants' places ; but much expense attended it. 
Richard Taylor also had several children, while with me, so that the 
family still consisted of twenty-five persons ; the majority of whom were 

grown persons. Losses continually occurred. I consulted Mr. , 

and other friends about my situation ; but most of them were for some 
further exertion in trade. That I knew would not do. Some said, 
' Turn away all the members of your family : you have enough to live on 
alone with a servant or two ; ' but I could not see how that could be 

done, for several of them were old, sickly, or helpless. Mr. said, 

' There is but one way for you ; put the farm into the hands of Richard 
Taylor, entirely separate from yourself ; let him have the stock just as 
it is, and work the kilns as he can raise the money. Let him pay you 
£do a year, and take his family to the end of the house. I agreed to 
this, and Richard Taylor paid his rent regularly ; but, as he was to 
have the farm free of debt, I found a good deal to pay which he had not 
brought to account ; so that, before all was settled, I had again to take 
up money on interest, which was no small affliction to me. Could I 
have sold the place, I would have chosen it rather. 



482 Wesley s Designated Successor. 



[1781. 



"We went on tolerably for three years. Mr. thought the farm 

increased in heart ; the stock also improved, and all was cheerful, 
except in my own mind, which foreboded deep waters. This was soon 
realized. In the beginning of the fourth year, Taylor was ,£600 in debt. 
I thought, I am not obliged to pay his debt ; let him break, and bear 
his own burden ; but I soon saw that I must either give up the stock, 
which would be sold for half it value, or I must pay the money. Besides, 
I was now informed, that, when he ceased to act as my agent, I ought 
to have advertised it, that no one might trust him through confidence 
in me." 

Thus, through wretched Richard Taylor, Miss Bosanquet 
found herself in a most serious entanglement. At the first, 
she felt she was not bound to pay Taylor's debt ; but Taylor's 
wife, big with child, came to her wringing her hands, and 
entreating her to save her husband from being sent to prison. 
The result was, Miss Bosanquet paid the debt, by accepting 

the offer of a loan of £600 from Mr. , who became a 

partner with her in the farm and malt-kilns, and took the 
management of the whole. This, however, did not end her 
anxieties. She writes : — 

"In my deep troubles, a thought occurred to my mind. 'Perhaps 
Mr. Fletcher is to be my deliverer ; ' but I started from the idea, lest it 
should be a stratagem of Satan. We had not seen or heard from each 
other for more than fifteen years. Besides, I was now (in August, 1777), 
told that Mr. Fletcher was dying. As I was, one day, in prayer, offer- 
ing him up to the Lord, these words occurred to me, — ' The prayer of 
faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up.' I thought 
if the Lord should raise him up, and should bring him back from 
Switzerland to England, and he should propose to marry me, could 
I doubt its being of God? I felt an unaccountable liberty to ask, — 1. 
That Mr. Fletcher might be raised up. 2. That he might be brought 
back to England. 3. That he might write to me on the subject before 
he saw me, though we had been so many years asunder, without so 
much as a message passing on any subject. 4. That he might tell me, 
in his letter, that (marrying me) had been the subject of his thoughts 
and prayers for years. It also occurred to me, that, should this take 
place in the end of 1 781, it would be a still greater confirmation, as 
Providence seemed to point me to that season as a time of hope." 

Miss Bosanquet's troubles were continued. Her new part- 
nership was disastrous, and Mr. 's management a failure. 

He had told her she would receive £100 a-year towards 
paying off the debts she owed to himself and others ; but 
the farm, instead of yielding a profit, was worked at a loss. 



Age 51.] Miss Bosanquet receives a Letter from Fletcher. 483 



The interest she had to pay so reduced her income, that it 
became impossible to keep more than half her family with 
what remained. She writes : — 

"As to the kilns, I had neither money nor courage to work them. 
I strove, I worked hard, I prayed ; and, at length, I proposed to the 
members of my family to disperse, and learn some little business ; and 
I would allow to each of them what I could. It was a most painful 
thing ; but I saw there was no way but first to sell the place, and then 
disperse. 

"Just at this time, a gentleman proposed to buy the place, stock, 
lease, and everything. He was a man both of fortune and of honour, 
and really wished to help me out of my difficulties ; and the price he 
offered would bring me through all, and leave me a good income. The 
bargain was in part made ; but, alas ! he took a fever, and, in a few 
days, died. I now saw but one way — to advertise Cross Hall, and sell 
it for what I could ; and, paying the purchase money away as far as it 
would go, strive yearly to lessen the remaining part of the debt by my 
income, reserving only ^50 per year to live on, and to help my friends. 
But I recollected that I might not live long enough thus to pay the 
debt by my income. I then proposed to myself to keep only £20 per 
year ; nay, I thought, how can I have a right even to twenty ? Justice 
is before mercy. One day, as I was standing at a window, musing on 
this subject, I saw a poor man driving asses laden with sand, by which 
he gained his bread. As I looked on him, I thought, I am perfectly 
willing to take up the business of that man. If I can preserve unsold 
one of the freehold cottages, the asses might graze on the common, 
and I could follow them with something to sell. There were but few 
trades which my conscience would suffer me to follow ; and my abilities 
were equal to still fewer ; but to anything in the world would I turn, 
that was not sinful, rather than remain in debt." 

" The 7th of June, 1781, was the day that began my fourteenth year 
in Yorkshire. I saw difficulties, as mountains, rise all around me ; but 
the very next day, June the 8th, I received a letter from Mr. Fletcher, 
in which he told me, that he had, for twenty-five years, found a regard 
for me, which was still as sincere as ever ; and, though it might appear 
odd that he should write on such a subject, when but just returned from 
abroad, and more so without seeing me first, he could only say, that 
his mind was so strongly drawn to do it, he believed it to be the order 
of Providence." 1 

Thus began Fletcher s courtship, which ended five months 
afterwards in his marrying Mary Bosanquet. 

The foregoing is a strange story. Of set purpose, nothing 



1 These statements are partly taken from "A Letter to the Rev. Mr. 
John Wesley. By a Gentlewoman, 1764" (Miss Bosanquet); and partly 
from the " Life of Mrs. Mary Fletcher. By TIenry Moore, 18 18." 



484 



Wesley 1 s Designated Successor. 



[1781. 



has been said of Miss Bosanquet's earnest piety, gospel 
labours., and spiritual successes, both in the south of England 
and in Yorkshire. The object has been to show to what 
straits a young lady of fortune was brought, by injudicious 
generosity, by foolish advisers, and, perhaps, it may be 
added, by crafty mendicants. Eighteen years before this, 
in a letter to Charles Wesley, Fletcher confessed that he 
regarded Miss Bosanquet with admiration ; l and that Miss 
Bosanquet regarded Fletcher with equal admiration the fore- 
going extracts amply prove ; as does also a letter, which she 
addressed to Wesley, nearly six years before her marriage, 
and from which the following is taken : — 

" Cross Hall, February 7, 1776. 

" Rev. Sir, — I thank you for your kind favour of January 27. It 
yielded us much satisfaction ; for never before could we get any account 
to be depended on. 

"I am exceedingly thankful Mr. Fletcher is with Mrs. Greenwood. 
She will tenderly care for him : and, having a spiritual mind, will be 
sensible of the honour God does her, in giving her such an opportunity. 

" How wise are all the ways of God, in keeping His faithful servant 
in that retired spot" (Stoke Newington), "while those precious works 
are completed, by which he will yet speak to us, though in glory : and 
now to enable him to bring them out, while his exemplary life and 
conversation add a lustre to the truths he has so powerfully defended. 

"We could have liked to have seen him once more ; but the will of 
the Lord be done ! Should it happen that this sickness is not unto 
death, we shall rejoice in having an opportunity of assisting him in an3^- 
thing which lies in our power. Should this favour be denied us, we 
must be content ; and beseech God to reward those who may supply 
our lack of service. 

" The blessed account you give of the state of his mind filled my soul 
with sacred joy, as also those of my friends. While I was reading it, 
it was a solemn season of faith and love, and we could not help saying, 
' Ah, Lord ! Let not this shining light be so soon extinguished ! ' 

"A few weeks ags, I once more read the 1 Equal Check? and felt an 
unction in it above all I had ever found before. The 1 Essay on Truth,'' 
with the Appendix, is as marrow and fatness to my soul. O may all 
the height and depth of every Gospel promise be written on his heart ! " 2 

Did Fletcher ever see this loving, admiring letter? Perhaps 
he did. At all events, Wesley's most intimate and con- 



1 Letters, 1791, p. 143. 

2 Arminia?i Magazine, 1788, p. 48. 



Age 52.] Fletcher concerning the Celibacy of Ministers. 485 



fidential friendship with both Fletcher and Miss Bosanquet 
was such as to justify utterances, which, under other circum- 
stances, would have been almost impertinent. In his sermon 
on the death of Fletcher, Wesley remarked, "Miss Bosanquet 
was the only person in England whom I judged to be 
worthy of Mr. Fletcher ; " and again, in a letter to Hester 
Ann Rogers, written a month after the marriage took place, 
he observed, " I should not have been willing that Miss 
Bosanquet should have been joined to any other person 
than Mr. Fletcher.'' 1 To some, such language may seem 
unusual, but, in reality, it was natural ; for Wesley had long 
been regarded as their father in Christ, both by Fletcher 
and his wife ; and, no doubt, both of them had consulted 
him with respect to the step they proposed to take. 

After all, Fletcher's matrimonial offer was a curious inci- 
dent. He was now fifty-two years of age. For the last 
four years and a-half, he had been absent from his parish, 
and so seriously ill, that, again and again, his friends expected 
him to die. Some of his views, also, of ministers marrying 
at all were rather peculiar, though rational and sound. In 
his " Portrait of St. Paul," composed in Switzerland, and 
revised and finished after his return to Madeley, Fletcher 
wrote : — 

"When a man is perpetually called to travel from place to place, 
prudence requires that he should not encumber himself with those 
domestic cares; which must occasion many unavoidable delays in the 
prosecution of his business : or, if he derives his maintenance from the 
generosity of the poor, charity should constrain him to burden them as 
little as possible. St. Paul could not prevail upon himself to expose a 
woman and children to those innumerable dangers, which he was con- 
stantly obliged to encounter. The first peril, from which he made his 
escape, was that which compelled him to descend from the wall of 
Damascus in a basket : now if a family had shared with him in the same 
danger, what an addition would they have made to his affliction and 
his care ! Is it not evident, that, in such circumstances, every man, 
who is not obliged to marry from reasons either physical or moral, is 
called to imitate the example of this disinterested Apostle, from the 
same motives of prudence and charity. This indefatigable preacher, 
always on a mission, judged it advisable to continue in a single state 
to the end of his days : but, had he been fixed in a particular church ; 



1 Wesley's Works, vol. xiii., p. 78. 



486 



Wesley s Designated Successor. [1781. 



had he there felt how much it concerns a minister neither to tempt others, 
nor to be tempted himself ; and had he known how much assistance a 
modest, provident, and pious woman is capable of affording a pastor, 
by inspecting the women of his flock, he would then probably have 
advised every resident pastor to enter into the marriage state, provided 
they should fix upon regenerate persons, capable of edifying the Church. ' ' 

Probably, while writing this, Fletcher was thinking of 
Wesley and his itinerant preachers, and also of the difference 
between them and himself, as the Vicar of Madeley. Be 
that as it may, from the doctrine he has laid down, he 
deduces the following principles : — 

" 1. In times of great trouble and grievous persecutions, the followers 
of Christ should abstain from marriage, unless obliged thereto by par- 
ticular and powerful reasons. 2. The faithful, who mean to embrace 
the nuptial state, should be careful, on no account, to connect themselves 
with any persons, except such as are remarkable for their seriousness 
and piety. 3. Missionaries ought not to marry, unless there is an abso- 
lute necessity. 4. A bishop, or resident pastor, is usually called to the 
marriage state. 5. A minister of the Gospel, who is able to live in a 
state of celibacy for the kingdo?n of heaven' 's sake, that he may have 
no other care except that of preaching the Gospel and attending upon 
the members of Christ's mystical body, — such a one is undoubtedly 
called to continue in a single state." 

Many will disapprove of some of Fletcher's deductions ; 
but it is easier to disapprove than to refute. 

On the 8th of June, 1 78 1, Miss Bosanquet received 
Fletcher's offer of marriage. They had long admired each 
other, but, when they first became acquainted, Fletcher 
regarded Miss Bosanquet's fortune as an insuperable barrier 
to their union ; and Miss Bosanquet was too much occupied 
with her philanthropic schemes to think of being married. 
Now, Fletcher, to a great extent, was an invalid, and, as 
much as any man alive, needed a pious and loving nurse. 
Miss Bosanquet, also, was in a quagmire of financial embar- 
rassments, and greatly needed a tender, judicious friend. 

Fletcher's letter, despatched early in the month of June, 
led to a correspondence which lasted till August r, when 
Fletcher arrived in Yorkshire to attend Wesley's Conference 
at Leeds. Miss Bosanquet writes : — 

"Mr. Fletcher came to Cross Hall, and abode there a month ; preach- 
ing in different places with much power. Having opened our whole 



A*e 52.] 



Original Love-Letter. 



487 



hearts to each other, both on temporals and spirituals, we believed it to 
be the order of God that we should become one, when He should make 
our way plain." 1 

Properly enough, Fletcher wished, before marrying Miss 
Bosanquet, to consult her family, and to obtain their approval. 
To this she consented ; and, three weeks after his return to 
Madeley, Fletcher wrote the following, hitherto unpublished, 
letters. Some will condemn the printing of this private 
correspondence ; but as it contains nothing but what is 
honourable to all the parties concerned, and as it exhibits 
the Vicar of Madeley in a new position, most readers will 
be thankful for it 

The first letter was addressed to Miss Bosanquet, and 
shows the ardour of her wooer ; — 

"Madeley, September 22, 1781. 

"My Dearest Friend, — I have received thy dear letter, with the 
one enclosed from thy brother. I shall send it back to thee by Mr. 
Brisco, 2 who will call here on his way to Birstal. 

" O Polly ! generous, faithful Polly ! dost thou indeed permit me to 
write to thy friends, and to ask the invaluable gift of thy hand ? That 
hand, that is half mine, shall be wholly mine. I have, to-day, written 
two letters, — one to thy uncle, the other to thy elder brother. Correct 
them, and, when thou hast, forward them with much prayer and love. 
Back them with some of thy sweet arguments. Thou knowest how to 
come at thy friends. I don't : I have only followed my instinct for thee 
in this new business. 

"Polly! I read thy letter, and wondered at the expression in it, — 
- If you think me worth writing for.' Ah ! my holy, my loving, my 
lovely, my precious friend, I think thee worth writing for with my vital 
blood : I am only sorry that I had not thee beside me to write with thy 
wisdom. However, I write by the first post : direct the letters pro- 
perly ; and excuse my sending them by thee, as I don't remember the 
names and streets. 

"'Difficulties!' If thou hast any, I shall gladly share them with 
thee, and think myself well repaid with the pleasure of praying and 
praising with thee, and for thee. Therefore, do not talk of struggling 
through alone. I charge thee, by thy faithfulness, let me be alone as 
little time as thou canst. 

" ' Three thousand pounds' with thee ! My dear, if thou art mine, 
and canst live in our cottage here, praising and blessing God, I shall 



1 " Mrs. Fletcher's Life." 

2 Thomas Brisco, a fine old Methodist Itinerant Preacher, at that 
time the Superintendent of the Birstal Circuit. 



488 



Wesley's Designated Successor. 



[1781. 



rejoice more than Mephibosheth, when, through joy, he said, ' Let Ziba 
take all, forasmuch as my lord the king is come back in peace' (2 Sam. 
xix. 30). Let not thy wisdom, Polly, make thee suspect and surmise 
evil. Let thy charity make thee hope all things for thy friends. 

" I thank thee for that believing sentence, — ' But, all shall be right.' 
The worst thy friends can do is to keep thy money, which I look upon 
as dung and dross in comparison of thee. Ah Polly ! with the treasure 
of thy friendship, and the unsearchable riches of Christ, how rich 
thinkest thou I am ? Count — cast up — but thou wilt never make out 
the amazing sum. 

" So thou wilt keep ' two years ' from me to bring me some money ! 
Oh, Polly ! that is a saying more worthy of Change Alley than of the 
paradise of love. Let me comfort thee a little. If thou lovest me half 
as much as I do thee, thou wilt think thyself rich. Thou art worth to 
me a ?nillion ; and cannot I he worth thy ,£5,000 ? 

" I embrace thee in spirit, and more than mix my soul with thine. 
Farewell ! 

"J. Fletcher." 

The two letters referred to in this sweethearting epistle, 
and addressed to Miss Bosanquet's uncle, Claudius Bosanquet, 
Esq., and to her brother, S. Bosanquet, Esq., were the 
following : — 

"To Claudius Bosanquet, Esq. 

" Madeley, September 22, 1781. 
"Sir, — Permit a stranger to claim some moments of the time you 
consecrate to your neighbours' happiness and the welfare of your own 
family. 

" I was born in the Pays de Vaud at Nyon, a town about fifteen miles 
north of Geneva, on the borders of the lake. My father, in his youth, 
was an officer in the French service, which he left to marry. He was 
afterwards a colonel in the militia of his country, and a judge or assessor 
to the lord-lieutenant of the town where he lived. I am the youngest 
of his eight children. Having some desires to be a clergyman, I was, 
for seven years, sent to Geneva to pursue my studies. But after I had- 
stayed there seven years, a fear of being unfit for the Christian ministry, 
and the enticing offers of my father's brother, who was a lieutenant- 
colonel in the Dutch service, made me for a time prefer the sword to the 
gown. I left the academy" [at Geneva] "and went to Flanders to 
join my eldest brother, who was an officer in the Dutch service ; but, 
before I could enter the army, the peace was made, and my uncle, on 
whom my hopes depended, left the service. 

" Seeing my way to military preferment blocked up by these two 
events, I came to England, to get more perfect in the English tongue, 
which I had begun to learn at Geneva. Some months after I was come 
over, Mr. Des Champs, a French minister, to whom I had been recom- 
mended, procured me the place of tutor to the son of Mr. Hill, member 
of Parliament for Shrewsbury. In his family I lived some years, and 



Age 52.] Original Letter to Miss Bosanque? s Uncle. 489 



applied myself to the study of divinity ; and, at his request, and by his 
interest, I got into Orders ; a calling which now suited my more serious 
turn of mind. 

" It was soon after my ordination that I saw Miss Mary Bosanquet, 
your pious niece. I had resolved not to marry, but the sweetness of her 
temper, and her devotedness to God, made me think that if ever I 
broke through my resolution, it would be to cast my lot with one like 
her. 

"Not long after, at Mr. Hill's request, his nephew, Mr. Kinaston, 
member for Montgomery, presented me to the living of Madeley, a 
little market-town in the county of Salop, worth about ^100 per annum ; 
and here I have chiefly lived, sequestered from the world, as your 
amiable niece has done at Leyton and at Cross Hall. 

"After having corresponded some years with her on various subjects, 
last spring, on my return from a journey to the continent, I ventured to 
mention to her my first thoughts about a closer union with her, — thoughts 
which I had kept to myself for nearly twenty -five years. After maturely 
discussing the point, your pious niece has given me room to hope she 
will give me her hand, if you, Sir, whom she honours as a father, give 
your consent to our union. I earnestly ask it, Sir; and beg you will 
share the pleasure of uniting two persons who, from a remarkable agree- 
ment of taste, sentiments, and pursuits, as well as from a particular 
sympathy, seem formed for each other by the God of nature and of 
grace. 

" I wish, Sir, I had a fortune equal to Miss Bosanquet' s deserts ; but 
I hope I have one suitable to her piety, and to the moderate wishes of 
that godliness which, together with contentment, is a great gain. I 
have only about ^1,500 worth of property in my native country, and 
about ^400 or ^500 more in my parish, . besides the income of my 
living, and a house much better than those with which most country 
clergymen are obliged to put up. 

" Whatever be your pious niece's fortune, I assure you, Sir, I seek 
her person, not her property ; and to convince you of it, I request that 
before she gives me her hand, her whole fortune may be secured to her 
by a proper settlement. 

' ' With respect to my character, and the truth of what I have here 
advanced, I beg leave to refer you, Sir, to four creditable persons. With 
regard to my conduct, and what I affirm of myself as Vicar of Madeley, 
you may get proper informations from Thomas Hill, Esq., now in Salop, 
the old gentleman in whose house or neighbourhood I have lived very 
near thirty years ; and from his son, Noel Hill, Esq., member for Shrop- 
shire, the gentleman to whom I was tutor. With respect to what I 
have mentioned of myself as a native of Switzerland, you may, Sir, 
procure proper informations from two clergymen now in that country, 
Mr. De Bons and Mr. Tavan, whom I saw last Christmas at Lausanne, 
and whom you have probably seen in London, when they served French 
churches there. 

" I would, Sir, have waited upon you in person, in London, if some 



4oo 



Wesley's Designated Successor. 



[178 



journeys which my curate must take did not oblige me to stay here to 
serve my own church. 

" I shall have the honour to write upon the same subject to Miss 
Bosanquet's brothers, and shall take the liberty of referring them to 
this letter, for some account of him who aspires to the hand of their 
pious sister; and who, with respect to temporal happiness, desires 
nothing so ardently as to have your leave to add the name of nephew 
to «that of, Sir, your most humble and obedient servant, 

" John Delaflechere. 

" P-S. — Soon after I came to England, my English friends, com- 
plaining of the length of my Swiss name, began to contract it by drop- 
ping the French syllables of it. So they called me Fletcher ; and by 
that name I have been known among the English ever since. If ) r ou 
favour me with an answer, Sir, it will find me if it is directed thus : — 

" Mr. Fletcher, 

" Vicar of Madeley, 

"Near Shiffnal, 

" Shropshire." 

The letter addressed to Miss Bosanquet's brother was as 
follows : — 

" Madeley, near Shiffnal, Shropshire, 
" September 22, 1781. 

" Sir, — Aspiring to the happiness of being united to your pious sister, 
Miss Bosanquet, and to the honour of being, by her means, connected 
with your family, I should be wanting both to my duty and my inclina- 
tion if I proceeded in my addresses to her without informing you of my 
design, and asking your approbation of it. 

" By this post I send to Claudius Bosanquet, Esq., some account of 
myself, which I hope he will communicate to you, Sir, and to your 
brother. I shall only add two things. 

"Among the reasons which hindered me from making my addresses 
to your amiable sister, when first I felt that sympathy which binds my 
soul to hers, the superiority of her fortune was not the least. Since that 
time, debts, which unforeseen circumstances led her to contract, have 
considerably lessened that difficulty ; and the prudent fear of contract- 
ing new ones seems to make it expedient for her to get into a state 
where she may, without difficulty and with propriety, bring her expensive 
housekeeping within narrower bounds. That end will at once be attained 
if she favours me with her hand. 

" Further, in extricating herself from some difficulties, she will crown 
the wishes of the oldest and warmest of her friends ; and contribute not 
to my happiness only, but to that of my numerous flock. You are too 
well acquainted Vith your pious sister's turn of mind not to know that 
Providence designed her for a clergyman's partner and fellow-helper. 
Her instructions, her employment, her very pleasures from her child- 



Age 52.] 



Financial Affairs. 



491 



hood, have led her to assist her neighbours in temporal as well as in 
spiritual matters. She has even been blamed for the warmth of her 
zeal. But what seemed rather awkward and improper in a single woman, 
will become highly expedient and highly commendable in a clergyman's 
wife. The secondary inspection and care of the children and women 
of a flock of two thousand souls will then naturally devolve to her share, 
and in some sense become her duty. 

" I hope that if you, Sir, your worthy uncle, your brother, and Mrs. 
Gassen 1 weigh these particulars you will consent to our union, and by 
that means contribute more than I can express to the happiness, Sir, 
of your most humble and most obedient servant, 

"J. Fletcher." 

In due time, in a letter, dated " Forest House, October 2, 
1 78 i,"S. Bosanquet, Esq., informed Fletcher that he approved 
of the proposed marriage ; but added : — 

" My sister's fortune is so encumbered, that nothing but the sale of 
all her landed estate can free her from her difficulties ; and, if that 
portion of her fortune, which came to her by my father's will, had not 
been tied up, she would have been ruined." 2 

A fortnight later, Mr. S. Bosanquet wrote to his sister, 
and gave her an account of her fortune, amounting in the 
aggregate to ,£10,500. He then told her that she had 
already squandered the whole of this amount, with the 
exception of ^4,500 settled on trustees, for her benefit, by 
her father's will. He continued : — 

"One reason why my father secured this money, by leaving it on 
trust, was, lest, by your placing too great confidence in those with whom 
you were connected, and by your endeavouring to do more good than 
your circumstances would afford, you might be left destitute." 

He then added : — 

" I cannot conclude without remarking that, although you are encum- 
bered with debts, you must be, at least, an equal match for Mr. Fletcher. 
Your two estates 3 have always been considered as fully equal to your 
debts ; but, suppose they should not turn out to be so, the difference 
cannot be very great ; and, as the remainder of your income exceeds 
^200 a year, it at least equals Mr. Fletcher's income, such as it has 



1 Miss Bosanquet' s married sister. The two sisters began their 
religioits life together at a very early age. 
- Unpublishe d letter. 

3 The Leytonstone estate, valued at ^3,000 ; and that bequeathed by 
her grandmother, valued at ,£2,500. 



492 



Wesley's Designated Successor. 



[1781. 



been stated to me ; besides the consideration that the greater part of 
his income dies with him, and the capital of yours survives in case there 
should be children, for their benefit." 1 

At the same time, Miss Bosanquet's brother William, in 
a letter dated "Lime Street, London, October 16, 1781," 
replied to her wail that she could "carry Mr. Fletcher nothing 
but debts," and stated that he was in favour of her marrying 
Fletcher. 2 

Before taking leave of the Bosanquet family, it may be 
added, that Mr. S. Bosanquet sent his sister, as his wedding 
present, a pair of silver candlesticks ; 3 and that her brother 
William, in a letter dated "November 27, 1 78 1 ," and 
addressed " Mrs. Fletcher, Cross Hall, Morley Common, near 
Leeds," wrote : — 

"I cannot but hope the greatest happiness will attend your union 
with a gentleman to whom, by general report, the highest praise is due. 
Permit me to wish you joy on this occasion, and to add my best respects 
to Mr. Fletcher, assuring him that I shall be happy to cultivate his 
acquaintance, and to show him every attention in my power." 4 

With this loving letter, Mr. William Bosanquet forwarded 
to his sister a nuptial present of £100. 

Another fact must be mentioned. William Bosanquet loved 
his sister, and, not only now, but in aftertime, he showed the 
genuineness of his affection by his deeds. The uncle, Claudius 
Bosanquet, in#his last will and testament, bequeathed to Miss 
Bosanquet's two brothers £18,000 each; but Miss Bosanquet 
and her sister Gassen were unnamed. At the uncle's death, 
their brother W T illiam, ever generous and open-handed, gave 
them £500 each ; when Fletcher died, he presented to the 
widow £\o a year to relieve the wants of the poor of 
Madeley ; and when he himself died, in 1 8 1 3, he bequeathed 
her the sum of £2,000. 

These details have not been given without a reason. 
Some ill-informed Methodists have a sort of floating idea that 
Fletcher's marriage was an unequal one — that is, they seem 
to think that the Bosanquet family w T as much more respect- 



3 Ibid. 

4 Ibid. 



Age 52.] Settling Affairs in Yorkshire. 



493 



able than that of Fletcher; and that Miss Bosanquet's fortune 
was much greater than the fortune of the man who became 
her loving and devoted husband. Enough has been said to 
show the inaccuracy of this. Fletcher's family was quite 
equal, in point of respectability, to the Bosanquet family, 
and, perhaps, superior ; and his yearly income was not less 
than that of the lady who rejoiced to become his wife. 
Never was there a marriage more free from mercenariness 
than that of John Fletcher, of Madeley, and Mary Bosanquet, 
of Cross Hall, Yorkshire. It was, in the highest and purest 
sense, a love-match. The letters, just given, exhibit 
Fletcher's affection, disinterestedness, honour, and respect for 
others. Miss Bosanquet had still a remnant of her fortune ; 
but he wished the whole of this to be settled upon herself. 
He wished to marry her, but, before carrying out his wish, 
as a courteous gentleman, he asked for the approbation of 
her family, thereby setting a good example to his inferiors 
and juniors. She wished to marry him ; but, shrinking from 
the idea of involving him in her pecuniary embarrassments, 
she proposed to postpone the marriage till her affairs were 
in a more settled state. Her family were consulted by 
Fletcher ; and they responded in the most kind and straight- 
forward manner. In genius, talent, and learning, Fletcher 
was immensely Miss Bosanquet's superior ; but, for pure, 
ardent, disinterested, unselfish love, it is impossible to decide 
which of the two was entitled to bear the palm. 

Consent to the marriage having been obtained from the 
Bosanquet family, Fletcher made an arrangement to spend 
the remainder of the year with his affianced in Yorkshire. 
The well-known Rev. John Crosse, 1 Vicar of Bradford, took 
Fletcher's pulpit at Madeley, and Fletcher took Mr. Crosse's 
at Bradford. 2 To some, this may seem somewhat strange ; 
but it must be borne in mind that Miss Bosanquet's temporal 
affairs were in a most entangled state, and that it was of 
great importance that her Cross Hall property should be 
sold, and all her business assets and debts in Yorkshire 



1 Mr. Crosse had been acquainted with Miss Bosanquet when she 
resided at Leytonstone, and, from that time to this, a warm friendship 
had existed between them. (" Life of Crosse," by Morgan, p. 8.) 

2 "Life of Rev. John Crosse," by Morgan, p. 9. 



496 



Wesley s Designated Successor. 



[1781. 



carry us to the church ; but death will soon be here to carry us to the 
marriage supper of the Lamb.' 

" On the way to Batley Church, which was nearly two miles distant, 
he spoke much of the mystery represented by marriage, namely the 
union between Christ and His Church. They were married in the face 
of the congregation : the doors were opened, and everyone came in that 
would. We then returned home, and spent a considerable time in sing- 
ing and prayer. There were nearly twenty of us. I then presented 
Mrs. Fletcher with some wedding hymns. She looked over them, and 
gave them to Mr. Fletcher. He read the Scripture text at the top, 
namely, ' Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the Church.' Then 
turning to the company, he said, ' My God, what a task ! Help me, my 
friends, by your prayers, to fulfil it. As Christ loved the Church ! He 
laid aside His glory for the Church ; He submitted to be bom into our 
world ; to be clothed with a human body, subject to all our sinless 
infirmities ; He endured shame, contempt, pain, yea, death itself for 
His Church ! O my God, none is able to fulfil this task, without Thine 
Almighty aid ! Help me, O my God ! Pray for me, O my friends ! 

"He next read, 'Wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands.' 
Mrs. Fletcher added, 'As unto the Lord.' 'Well, my dear,' returned 
Mr. Fletcher, ' only in the Lord. And if ever I wish you to do any- 
thing otherwise, resist me with all your might.' 

" From dinner, which was a spiritual meal as well as a natural one, 
until tea-time, our time was chiefly spent in prayer or singing. After 
singing the covenant hymn, Mr. Fletcher went to Mrs. Fletcher, and 
said to her, ' Well, my dearest friend, will you unite with me in joining 
ourselves in a perpetual covenant to the Lord ? Will you with me serve 
Him in His members ? Will you help me to bring souls to the Blessed 
Redeemer ? And, in every possible way, this day lay yourself under 
the strongest ties you can, to help me to glorify my gracious Lord ? 
She answered, ' May my God help me so to do ! ' 

" In the evening, Mr. Valton 1 preached in the hall, from, 'What shall 
I render unto the Lord for all His benefits ? I will take the cup of sal- 
vation, and call upon the name of the Lord.' His words did not fall to 
the ground ; many were greatly refreshed. After the preaching, there 
was a sweet contest among us : every one thought, ' I, in particular, -owe 
the greatest debt of praise ; ' at length we agreed to sing, — 



1 John Valton, one of Wesley's Preachers, then in the seventh year 
of his itinerancy, and labouring in the Birstal Circuit. He wrote : " On 
the 1 2th of November, 1781, Mr. Fletcher stole hallowed fire from my 
people, by taking away Miss Bosanquet. I and a few friends accom- 
panied them to Batley Church. Surely, such a blessed wedding I never 
knew before. By request, I improved the occasion in the evening, from 
these words, ' WTiat shall we render to the Lord for all His benefits ? 
I will take the cup of salvation, and call upon His name.' It was a 
refreshing time ; and many prayers were offered that eternal blessings 
might crown the devoted pair." ("Life of the Rev. John Valton," 
p. 104.) 



Age 52.] 



Wesley' 's Letter to Fletcher. 



497 



" ' I'll praise my Maker, while I've breath, 
And when my voice is lost in death, 

Praise shall employ my nobler powers : 
My days of praise shall ne'er be past, 
While life, and thought, and being last, 

Or immortality endures.' " 1 

Is there on record another wedding day such as this ? 
To criticise the account would spoil it. It may, however, 
interest the reader to give a verbatim copy of the marriage 
certificate : — 

"No. 112. John William Fletcher, of the parish of Madeley, in the 
county of Salop, Clerk, and Mary Bosanquet, of this parish, were mar- 
ried in this church (Batley) by license, this twelfth day of November, in 
the year 1781, by me, John Deighton, Curate. 

" This marriage was solemnized between us, John William Fletcher, 
or De la Flechere, and Mary Bosanquet, in the presence of William 
Smith and Ann Tripp." 

Twelve days after the marriage, Wesley wrote to Fletcher 
the following characteristic letter : — - 

"London, November 24, 1781. 

"Dear Sir, — There is not a person to whom I would have wished 
Miss Bosanquet joined besides you. But this union, I am thoroughly 
persuaded, is of God ; and so are all the children of God with whom 
I have spoken. Mr. Bosanquet' s being so agreeable to it, I look upon 
as a token for good ; and so was the ready disposing of the house and 
stock, which otherwise would have been a great encumbrance. 

" From the first day which you spend together at Madeley, I hope 
you will lay down an exactly regular plan of living ; something like that 
of the happy family at Leytonstone. Let your light shine to all that 
are round about you. And let Sister Fletcher do as much as she can 
for God, and no more. To His care I commit you both, and am, my 
dear friends, 

' ' Your very affectionate brother, 

"John Wesley." 2 

A curious letter to be written to a man on his being 
married ; but Wesley and Fletcher were far too earnest, 
and were engaged in far too great a work, to permit them 
to write commonplace and empty congratulations. 

One of the first acts of Fletcher, after his marriage, was 



1 Wesley's "Life of Fletcher." 

2 Wesley's Works, vol. xii., p. 154. 



32 



49 8 



Wesley's Designated Successor. 



[178 



to make a settlement of his own monetary matters. The 
following is an exact copy of his will, written by himself : — 

' 'This is the last Will and Testament of John William Fletcher, 
Vicar of Madeley, in the County of Salop, whereby I give and bequeath 
to my dear wife, Mary Fletcher, all my personal estate, of what nature 
or kind soever, in the kingdom of Great Britain, for her own use and 
benefit. 

"With regard to my personal estate in Switzerland, I give and 
bequeath it all to my second brother, Henry de la Fletcher, assessor 
to the Lord Bailie, at Nyon, in the Canton of Berne, on condition that 
he or his heirs will take care to pay to my said dear wife, Mary Fletcher, 
or order, the income or produce of that personal estate during the term 
of her natural life ; and, in case my said brother or his heirs do not 
fulfil this condition, according to the tenour of this Will, then my said 
wife shall sell, or cause to be sold, that my said personal estate in 
Switzerland, for her own use and benefit ; and get the money over to 
England, on condition that she shall pay one hundred crowns to the 
poor of Nyon, in the said Canton of Berne. 1 

"And I do hereby appoint my said dear wife sole executrix of this my 
last Will and Testament. In witness whereof I have hereunto set my 
hand and seal this 24th of December, 1781. 

"John William Fletcher, or De la Flechere. 

" Signed and sealed by the Testator, and by him declared to be his 
last Will and Testament, in the presence of us, 

"John Valton. 
" Richard Taylor. 
"Thomas Garforth." 2 

Fletcher's marriage was, in all respects, a happy one. He 
was thankful for his wife, and proud of her. Hence the 
following letter to "The Hon. Mrs. C :" 

"Cross Hall, Yorkshire, December 26, 1781. 
" My Very Dear Friend,— Your favour of the 4th instant did not 
reach me until a considerable time after date, through my being still 
absent from Madeley ; a clergyman of this neighbourhood having made 



1 Fletcher's relatives in Switzerland most faithfully fulfilled this part 
of Fletcher's Will. In an unpublished letter to Mrs. Crosby, dated 
June 20, 1786, his widow wrote : — 

"My brother Henry possesses so much of the spirit of my dear 
husband, that his care of me exceeds all imagination. The family 
have sent me a bond, laying in their own estates as security to forward 
me the whole produce every year. I do not yet know exactly what it 
will be ; but it is far better than I thought ; and so is everything in 
which my dearest Mr. Fletcher has been concerned." 

2 The Wesley Banner, 1850, p. 314. 



Age 52.] Fletcher's Letter respecting his Marriage. 499 



an exchange with me, to facilitate my settling some temporal affairs in 
this county. 

"The kind part you take in my happiness demands my warmest 
thanks ; and I beg you will accept them, multiplied by those which my 
dear partner presents to you. Yes, my dear friend, I am married in my 
old age, and have a new opportunity of considering a great mystery, in 
the most perfect type of our Lord's mystical union with His Church. 
I have now a new call to pray for a fulness of Christ's holy, gentle, 
meek, loving Spirit, that I may love my wife, as He loved His spouse, 
the Church. But the emblem is greatly deficient : the Lamb is worthy 
of His spouse, and more than worthy ; whereas I must acknowledge 
myself unworthy of the yoke-fellow, whom heaven has reserved for me. 
She is a person after my own heart ; and, I make no doubt, we shall 
increase the number of the happy marriages in the Church militant. 

"Indeed, they are not so many, but it may be worth a Christian's 
while to add one more to the number. God declared it was not good 
that man, a social being, should live alone, and, therefore, He gave 
him a help-meet for him. For the same reason, our Lord sent forth His 
disciples two and two. Had I searched the three kingdoms, I could 
not have found one brother willing to share gratis my weal, woe, and 
labours, and complaisant enough to unite his fortunes to mine ; but 
God has found me a partner, a sister, a wife, to use St. Paul's lan- 
guage, who is not afraid to face with me the colliers and bargemen of 
my parish, until death part us. 

" Buried together in our country village, we shall help one another to 
trim our lamps, and wait for the coming of the heavenly Bridegroom." 1 

Before leaving this memorable year, 1781, it must be 
added that, twenty days after Fletcher's marriage, his be- 
loved friend and travelling companion, William Perronet, 
died, on his way to England, at Douay. Three months 
before this event took place, Fletcher remarked, in a letter 
to William Perronet's venerable father : — 

" Madeley, September 4, 1 78 1 . I have been for some weeks in York- 
shire, chiefly at the house of an old friend of mine, Miss Bosanquet, 
whose happy family put me in mind of yours. At my return home, I 
have found a letter from my brother, who informs me that my dear 
friend, your son, continues very weak. He is now at Gimel, a fine 
village between Lausanne and Geneva, where Miss Perronet's sister is 
settled. There he rides, and drinks ass's milk, and breathes the purest 
air. Mrs. Perronet is there with her two daughters, so that if the illness 
of my dear friend should grow more grievous, he will not want for good 
attendance and the most tender nursing." 2 



1 Letters, 1791, p. 281. 

2 Methodist Magazine, 181 7, p. 864. 



50o 



Wesley } s Designated Successor. 



[1781. 



Now, in another letter to the father of William Perronet, 
Fletcher wrote : — 

" I condole with you, Rev. and dear Sir, about the death of my dear 
friend and your dear son. We shall one day see why our heavenly 
Father made your sons go before you, and my kind physician before 
me. About the time he died, so far as I can find by your kind letter, a 
strong concern about him fell upon me by day and by night, insomuch 
that I could not help waking my wife to join me in praying for him ; 
and at once that concern ceased, nor have I since had any such spiritual 
feeling, whence I concluded that the conflict I supposed my friend to be 
in was ended. But how surprised was I to find it was by death / Well, 
whether Paul or Apollos, or life or death, all things are ours through 
Jesus, who knows how to bring good out of evil, and how to blow us into 
the harbour by a cross wind, or even by a dreadful storm." 1 



1 Benson's " Life of Fletcher." 



Age 52.] 



A Prolonged Service. 



CHAPTER XXV. 

TWO YEARS OF MARRIED LIFE AT MADELEY. 

1782 AND I783. 

IN a letter to an aristocratic friend in London, Fletcher 
began the year 1782 as follows : — 

" January r, 1782. I live, blessed be God, to devote myself again to 
His blessed service in this world or in the next, and to wish my dear 
friends all the blessings of a year of jubilee. Whatever this year brings 
forth, may it bring us the fullest measures of salvation attainable on 
earth, and the most complete preparation for heaven. 

" I have a solemn call to gird my loins and keep my lamp burning. 
Strangely restored to health and strength (considering my years), I 
have ventured to preach of late as often as I did formerly ; and after 
having read prayers and preached twice on Christmas-day, I did, last 
Sunday, what I had never done, — I continued doing duty from ten 
o'clock in the morning till after four in the afternoon. This was owing 
to christenings, churchings, and the sacrament, which I administered 
to a church full of people, 1 so that I was obliged to go from the com- 
munion table to begin the evening service, and then to visit some sick. 
This has brought back upon me one of my old, dangerous symptoms ; 
so I have flattered myself in vain that I should be able to do the whole 
duty of my own parish. My dear wife is nursing me with the tenderest 
care ; gives me up to God with the greatest resignation ; and helps me 
to rejoice that life and death, health and sickness, work for our good, 
and are all ours, as blessed means to forward us in our journey to 
heaven. 

" We intend to set out for Madeley to-morrow. The prospect of a 
winter's journey is not sweet; but the prospect of meeting you, and 
your dear sister, and Lady Mary Fitzgerald, and all our other com- 
panions in tribulation in heaven, is delightful. If Lady Huntingdon is 
in London, I beg you to present my duty to her, with my best wishes." 2 



1 No doubt this six hours' continuous service took place in the parish 
church, Bradford. 

2 Letters, 179:, p. 283. 



5oo 



Wesley's Designated Successor. 



[1781. 



Now, in another letter to the father of William Perronet, 
Fletcher wrote : — 

" I condole with you, Rev. and dear Sir, about the death of my dear 
friend and your dear son. We shall one day see why our heavenly 
Father made your sons go before you, and my kind physician before 
me. About the time he died, so far as I can find by your kind letter, a 
strong concern about him fell upon me by day and by night, insomuch 
that I could not help waking my wife to join me in praying for him ; 
and at once that concern ceased, nor have I since had any such spiritual 
feeling, whence I concluded that the conflict I supposed my friend to be 
in was ended. But how surprised was I to find it was by death ! Well, 
whether Paul or Apollos, or life or death, all things are ours through 
Jesus, who knows how to bring good out of evil, and how to blow us into 
the harbour by a cross wind, or even by a dreadful storm." 1 



1 Benson's " Life of Fletcher.' 



Age 52.] . A Prolonged Service. 501 



CHAPTER XXV. 

TWO YEARS OF MARRIED LIFE AT MADELEY. 

1782 AND 1783. 

IN a letter to an aristocratic friend in London, Fletcher 
began the year 1782 as follows : — 

" January r, 1782. I live, blessed be God, to devote myself again to 
His blessed service in this world or in the next, and to wish my dear 
friends all the blessings of a year of jubilee. Whatever this year brings 
forth, may it bring us the fullest measures of salvation attainable on 
earth, and the most complete preparation for heaven. 

" I have a solemn call to gird my loins and keep my lamp burning. 
Strangely restored to health and strength (considering my years), I 
have ventured to preach of late as often as I did formerly ; and after 
having read prayers and preached twice on Christmas-day, I did, last 
Sunday, what I had never done, — I continued doing duty from ten 
o'clock in the morning till after four in the afternoon. This was owing 
to christenings, churchings, and the sacrament, which I administered 
to a church full of people, 1 so that I was obliged to go from the com- 
munion table to begin the evening service, and then to visit some sick. 
This has brought back upon me one of my old, dangerous symptoms ; 
so I have nattered myself in vain that I should be able to do the whole 
duty of my own parish. My dear wife is nursing me with the tenderest 
care ; gives me up to God with the greatest resignation ; and helps me 
to rejoice that life and death, health and sickness, work for our good, 
and are all ours, as blessed means to forward us in our journey to 
heaven. 

" We intend to set out for Madeley to-morrow. The prospect of a 
winter's journey is not sweet; but the prospect of meeting you, and 
your dear sister, and Lady Mary Fitzgerald, and all our other com- 
panions in tribulation in heaven, is delightful. If Lady Huntingdon is 
in London, I beg you to present my duty to her, with my best wishes." 2 



1 No doubt this six hours' continuous service took place in the parish 
church, Bradford. 

2 Letters, 1791, p. 283. 



502 



Wesley's Designated Successor. [1782. 



Fletcher and his bride left Cross Hall on Wednesday, 
January 2, 1782. Mrs. Fletcher wrote: — 

" 1782, January 2. We set out for Madeley. Where shall I begin 
my song of praise ? What a turn is there in all my affairs ! From 
what a depth of sorrow, distress, and perplexity am I delivered ! How 
shall I find language to express the goodness of the Lord ! I know no 
want but that of more grace. I have a husband, in everything suited 
to me. He bears with all my faults and failings in a manner that con- 
tinually reminds me of the text, ' Love your wives, as Christ loved the 
Church.' His constant endeavour is to make me happy ; his strongest 
desire is for my spiritual growth. He is, in every sense of the word, 
the man my highest reason chooses to obey. I am also happy in a 
servant 1 whom I took from the side of her mother's coffin when she was 
four years old. She loves us as if we were her parents, and is also truly 
devoted to God." 2 

On January 6, Fletcher and his wife spent their first 
Sunday at Madeley. Seventeen years afterwards, Mrs. 
Fletcher remarked : — 

" The first Sabbath after I came to Madeley my dear husband took 
me into the kitchen, where his people were assembled to partake of 
refreshment between the times of worship. He introduced me to them, 
saying, ' I have not married this wife for myself only, but for your sakes 
also.' " 

And then the happy throng sang the hymn beginning with 
the verse — 

" Blow ye the trumpet, blow 

The gladly solemn sound ; 

Let all the nations know, 

To earth's remotest bound ; 
The year of jubilee is come ! 
Return, ye ransomed sinners, home." 

A few weeks after this, Wesley paid his friends a visit of 
one day and two nights. He says : — 

" 1782. Saturday, March 23. It was with a good deal of difficulty 
that we got" [from Kidderminster] " to Bridgenorth, much of the road 
being blocked up with snow. In the afternoon, we had another kind of 
difficulty ; the roads were so rough and so deep that we were in danger, 
every now and then, of leaving our wheels behind us. But, by adding 
two horses to my own, at length we got safe to Madeley. 



1 Sarah Lawrence. 

2 Benson's "Life of Fletcher." 



Age 52.] 



Wesley visits Made ley. 



503 



" Both Mr. and Mrs. Fletcher complained that, after all the pains 
they had taken they could not prevail on the people to join in Society ; 
no, nor even to meet in class. Resolved to try, I preached to a crowded 
audience on 'I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ.' I followed 
the blow in the afternoon by strongly applying those words, ' Awake, 
thou that sleepest ; ' and then enforcing the necessity of Christian fellow- 
ship on all who desired either to awake or keep awake. I then desired 
those that were willing to join together for this purpose to call upon me 
and Mr. Fletcher after service. Ninety-four or ninety-five persons did 
so — about as many men as women. We explained to them the nature 
of a Christian Society, and they willingly joined therein." 1 

Methodist preachers, for some time past, had preached in 
Madeley Wood, Coalbrookdale, and other adjacent places, 
and here Society Classes seem to have been formed ; but, up 
to the present, the Methodist people at Madeley had refused 
to meet in class. Henceforth, it was different. This altered 
state of things was owing partly to Wesley and to Fletcher, 
but chiefly to Fletcher's devoted wife. 

At the time of Wesley's visit, there was living at Little 
Dawley, near Madeley, a child nearly four years old, who, 
nineteen years afterwards, became a Methodist Itinerant 
Preacher, and who, in 1879, died in the one hundred and 
first year of his age — the tall, stalwart, grand old William 
Tranter. Naturally, Mr. Tranter loved Madeley, and affec- 
tionately cherished the memory of Fletcher and his wife. In 
an article published forty-five years ago, he wrote : — 

"■When Mr. Wesley's preachers came to the neighbourhood of Made- 
ley, Mr. Fletcher hospitably received those laborious servants of God 
into his house ; the vicarage kitchen, before consecrated by his prayers, 
was now further consecrated by their earnest and faithful preaching ; 
the Vicar of Madeley himself being one of their humblest and most 
prayerful hearers. The kitchen becoming too small, a barn on the 
premises was neatly fitted up for a preaching room. In this place, the 
Methodist travelling preachers, and the curate of the parish, regularly 
preached the Word of God. Here, also, Mrs. Fletcher, after the removal 
of her holy husband to his heavenly rest, held her meetings for expo- 
sition of the Scriptures, religious experience, and prayer. Surviving her 
husband many years" (thirty), " she lived a widow indeed, doing good 
to all around her, and winning the veneration and love of rich and poor, 
not only in the village and parish of Madeley, and in the adjoining 
parishes, but in all places where she was known, and to which the fame 
of her piety and charity had extended. The rector not only allowed her 



1 Wesley's Journal. 



504 



Wesley's Designated Successor. 



[1782. 



to remain in the vicarage-house, undisturbed during life, but allowed 
her to choose the curate by whom the duties of the living were to be 
performed ; assigning as his reason, that she knew better than himself 
what would suit and benefit the parishioners. Besides exercising pub- 
licly, at stated times, in the vicarage room, she occasionally visited 
Madeley Wood, Coalbrookdale, Coalport, and other places more distant, 
at which times the chapels were usually crowded with delighted and 
profited hearers. To her house, the Itinerant Preachers continued to 
eome to the end of her earthly sojourn. Here they always found a hearty 
welcome, and a delightful home. Several lovely Societies were formed, 
others were augmented, hundreds of souls were converted, Christian 
believers were edified and blessed, the fruit of Mr. Fletcher's ministry 
was preserved, and Madeley became the rendezvous for religious persons 
and purposes — a privileged, honoured place, — a sort of Christian Jeru- 
salem. It was not uncommon to see two, three, or more clergymen, 
pious and able men, from neighbouring and even distant parishes, among 
the congregation at her week-night lectures. On the Sabbath, the 
pious people, living at the distance of from one to four miles from 
Madeley, usually arrived in time for her morning meeting, at nine o'clock ; 
and, from there, they went to the parish church close at hand. At noon, 
respectable strangers, visiting Madeley for religious purposes, were 
usually invited to dine with her at the vicarage ; the poor, living too 
far off to allow them to return from their own houses for the after 
services of the day, partook, if so disposed, of her hospitalities in the 
vicarage -kitchen ; others, having brought their provisions with them, 
were seen, in fine weather, in little companies in the fields, engaged in 
heavenly conversation and prayer ; and others of the respectable portion 
of these pious people, had, in an apartment to themselves, a cheap 
family dinner provided at the village inn. On the ringing of a bell, at 
one o'clock, all assembled at Mrs. Fletcher's meeting, when she was 
accustomed to read the life of some eminently holy man, and make 
remarks upon it ; then they adjourned to the church, for the afternoon 
service there, and sermon ; after which they repaired to their respective 
homes, and attended their own meeting-houses, at one or other of which 
the Curate of Madeley officiated every Sabbath evening, as well as 
occasionally on the week-days, always announcing at the close of the 
afternoon service in the church, the chapel in which he would preach 
that evening. This plan was adopted by Mr. Fletcher, and was followed 
by his evangelical and pious successors, for upwards of forty years." 1 

The godly reader will easily forgive this rich digression, 
and will be inclined to sing, with Charles Wesley : — 

" Meek, simple followers of the Lamb, 
They lived, and spake, and thought the same ; 
They joyfully conspired to raise 
Their ceaseless sacrifice of praise. 

1 Wesley an Methodist Magazine, 1837, P- 9°3* 



Age 52.] A Modern Visit to Madeley. 



505 



" With grace abundantly endued, 
A pure, believing multitude, 
They all were of one heart and soul, 
And only love inspired the whole. 

' ' O what an age of golden days ! 
O what a choice, peculiar race ! 
Washed in the Lamb's all-cleansing blood, 
Anointed kings and priests to God ! " 1 

Madeley will long continue to be a kind of Mecca to the 
Methodists. Many years ago, the present writer, in company 
with the late Rev. Dr. Jobson, visited it. They met with 
the utmost courtesy, the lady of the Vicar showing them 
everything likely to interest a Methodist. She had a lock 
of Fletcher's silky hair, which she greatly prized. They were 
taken into Fletcher's study, about nine feet by twelve in size, 
and had pointed out to them a portion of the wall, still 
stained with Fletcher's breathings while engaged in prayer. 
The old barn-chapel was no longer in existence, but, near to 
its site, there was a small building, containing its pulpit, 
brass lamps, and prayer-book, together with the small oaken 
communion table at which Fletcher celebrated his last sacra- 
ment. The vicarage, a respectable old edifice, had beautiful 
gardens and grounds attached to it ; and the parish church, 
built upon the site of the small old church, in which Fletcher 
ministered to crowded congregations, contained several memen- 
toes to remind visitors of its memorable vicar. The steps 
leading both to the reading-desk and pulpit were those which 
Fletcher used to tread ; and, in a small vestry, was preserved 
the register of all the baptisms, marriages, and deaths during 
his incumbency, and showing that his last baptism was on 
July 29, 1785, six weeks before his death. The old church, 
in which Fletcher preached, would hold five hundred ; the 
present one, built in 1794, will seat about a thousand ; and, 
since its erection, two others have been built in other parts of 
the parish. Besides these, the following Wesleyan Methodist 
chapels have been built : one in Court Street, Madeley, holding 
eight hundred ; another, of the same size, in Madeley Wood ; 

1 Deep indentations in the stone pillars of the vicarage gate still 
exist, occasioned by the Sunday visitors to Madeley sharpening their 
knives to eat their dinners. (Randall's "Lives and Usefulness of the 
Rev. J. and Mary Fletcher," p. 33.) 



506 



Wesley's Designated Successor. 



[1782. 



another, half the size, in Coalbrookdale ; and a fourth at 
Coalport, capable of containing two hundred. And to these 
may be added two chapels, at Madeley and Madeley Wood, 
belonging to the Methodist New Connexion; and another 
belonging to the Primitive Methodists. 

It is time to return to Fletcher." Among the first Metho- 
dists in Ireland were Henry and Robert Brooke, who, up to 
the year 1758, resided in the neighbourhood of Rantavan. 
Henry became the far-famed author of "The Fool of Quality; 
or, The History of Henry, Earl of Moreland published, in 
five volumes, 1766 — 1770 ; and of other ably-written books, 
which gained him the friendship of Pope, Swift, and several 
more of the literati of his age. He married a young lady, to 
whom he was guardian, when she was thirteen years of age, 
by whom he had seventeen children, only two of whom 
survived him, when he died in 1783. His brother Robert 
had three children : Henry, the eldest, who, for about forty- 
years, was one of the leading Methodists in Dublin ; Robert, 
the second, a colonel in the army ; and Thomas Digby, the 
youngest, also connected with the Dublin Methodist Society. 
In the year 1772, Henry wrote to Fletcher; Fletcher mistook 
the nephew for the uncle, whose " Fool of Quality " had 
recently been completed ; and this amusing mistake led 
Fletcher to address to the famous author the following 
valuable epistle : — 

"Madeley, Sefite7nber 6, 1772. 

" Dear Sir, — I cannot tell you how often I have thought of thanking 
you for your kind letter. My controversy made me put it off some 
time, and, when I was going one day to answer you, a clergyman called 
upon me, read your letter, said you were a sensible author, and, if I 
would let him have it, he would let me have your ' Fool of Quality,' of 
which I had never heard. I forgot to take your address ; but, after 
some months, my friend has sent me back your unexpected and welcome 
favour; and I now know in what street you live. A thousand thanks 
for your letter. May this sheet convey them from my heart to yours ; 
and thence may they fall, like a thousand drops, into that immense 
ocean of goodness, truth, and love, whence come all the streams, which 
gladden the universe of God ! 

" I thankfully accept the pleasure, profit, and honour of your corre- 
spondence. But I must not deceive you ; I have not yet learned the 
blessed precept of our Lord in respect of writing and receiving letters. 
I still find it more blessed to receive, than to give ; and, till I have got 



Age 52.] Letter to Author of" The Fool of Quality." 507 



out of this selfishness, never depend on a letter from me till you see it, 
and be persuaded, nevertheless, that one from you will always be welcome. 

" I see, by your works, that you love truth, and that you will force 
your way, through all the barriers of prejudice, to embrace it in its 
meanest dress. That makes me love you. I hope to improve by your 
example and your lessons. One thing I want truly to learn, that is, 
that creatures and visible things are but shadows, and that God is God, 
Jehovah, the true, eternal Substance. To live practically in this truth 
is to live in the suburbs of heaven. Really to believe that in God we 
live, move, and have our being, is to find and enjoy the root of our 
existence : it is to slide from self into our original principle ; from the 
carnal into the spiritual ; from the visible into the invisible ; from time 
into eternity. Give me, at your leisure, some directions, how to cease 
from busying myself about the husks of things, and how to breakthrough 
the shell, so that I may come to the kernel of resurrection, life, and 
power, that lies hidden from the unbeliever's sight. 

" About feelings. Pray, my dear Sir, are you possessed of all the 
feelings of your Clinton, Clement, and Harry ? Are they natural to you, 
I mean, previous to what we generally call conversion ? I have often 
thought that some of the feelings you describe depend a good deal upon 
the fineness of the nerves, and bodily organs ; and, as I am rather of a 
Stoic turn, I have, sometimes, comforted myself in thinking, that my 
want of feelings might, in a degree, proceed from the dulness of Swiss 
nerves. If I am not mistaken, Providence directs me to you to have 
this important question solved. May not some persons have as much 
true faith, love, humanity, and pity, as others who are ten times more 
affected, at least for a season ? And what directions would you give 
to a Christian Stoic, if these two ideas are not absolutely incompatible ? 

" My Stoicism helps me, I think, to weather out a storm of displeasure, 
which my little pamphlets have raised against me. You see, I at once 
consult you as an old friend and spiritual casuist ; nor know I how to 
testify better to you how unreservedly I begin to be, my very dear friend, 

" Yours in the Lord, 

"J. Fletcher." 1 

Probably " The Fool of Quality " was the only novel 
Fletcher ever read ; but it taught him to respect its author. 
It is more than doubtful, however, whether Fletcher's letter 
ever reached the gentleman for whom it was intended. At 
all events, there is no evidence whatever that any corre- 
spondence took place between Henry Brooke, senior, and 
the Vicar of Madeley. Of course, Fletcher's communication 
reached the nephew of Brooke, and, nearly ten years after- 
wards, he and others wrote to Fletcher, requesting him and 



Letters, 1791, p. 214. 



50S Wesley's Designated Successor. [1782. 



his newly-wedded wife to visit the Methodists in Dublin. 
Fletcher replied : — 

"Madeley, April 20, 1782. 

" Dear Sir, — Last Saturday, I received your kind invitation to take 
a journey to Dublin, with my wife ; and we join in sincere thanks for 
the kind and generous offer which accompanies that invitation. 

" Two reasons, at this time, concur to make me postpone the accept- 
ing of it. Not to mention my state of health, I have been so long 
absent from my parish, that my parishioners have a just claim to my 
stated labours for some time ; and Mr. Bayley, my curate, being wanted 
at Kingswood School, I must serve my own church myself, and the duty 
is so continual that I dare not go twenty miles from home, much less to 
a neighbouring kingdom. Providence may, if it be for the glory of God, 
make a way for me to go, and return my thanks in person. In the 
meantime, I beg you, Sir, to present them to all our brethren, who set 
their hands to your kind letter. 

" If I took you, Sir, for the author of ' The Fool of Quality,' 1 1 thought 
I saw his style in the style of your letter ; however, I was not much 
mistaken. Your pen is nearly allied to his, as your blood is to his. 
May one Spirit, the humble, loving Spirit of Jesus, make us all of one 
heart and soul ! May we, notwithstanding the channel which separates 
our bodies, rejoice that one truth unites our souls, and that the common 
faith and love make us join daily in Christ our Head ! So prays, dear 
Sir, your affectionate and obliged brother and servant, 

"John Fletcher." 2 

Fletcher and his wife remained at Madeley, and the latter 
wrote : — 

"May 30, 1782. I have the kindest and tenderest of husbands; of 
so spiritual a man, and so spiritual a union, I had no adequate con- 
ception. He is every way suited to me, all I could wish. The work 
among souls increases." 3 

A few weeks later, in a letter to Wesley, she said : — 

"Madeley, July 7, 1782. 
"Very Dear Sir, — I find a desire of informing you how we go on. 
The people you joined, when here, are, I trust, coming forward. I have 
not conversed with the men ; but the women are more in number than 
at that time. Some have been clearly justified, I think five ; and three 
or four are restored to that communion with God, which they had for 
some years lost. A few are athirst for a clean heart ; and, on the 



1 Two years before this, Wesley had published his abridged edition 
of " The Fool of Quality," in two volumes, i2mo. 

2 Original Letter. 

3 "Mrs. Fletcher's Life," by H. Moote. 



Age 52.] Mrs. Fletcher and ihe Made ley Methodists. 509 



whole, there is a good increase of freedom and liberty in our class- 
meetings. We have now also a band, 1 into which I gather the most 
lively; all that are newly blest, or that have any light into sanctifi- 
cation ; and we have much of the presence of God with us. 

" My dear Mr. Fletcher spares no pains. I know not which is greater, 
his earnest desire for souls, or his patience in bearing with their infir- 
mities and dulness. His preaching is exceeding lively ; and our sacra- 
ments are more like those in the chapels of London than any I have 
seen since I left it. Yet, I find a great difference between the people 
here and those in Yorkshire : however, the Lord has little ones here 
also. 

" Last Friday, after riding two hours in the rain, we came to a good 
congregation, where there was neither house nor church to cover us ; 
but I have not seen more of the Yorkshire attention since I left that 
county, nor had a more solemn time ; though we were under a wet 
cloud all the while, and our poor servant waiting for us, who brought 
us safe home by ten o'clock the same night. This is one of the old 
congregations which my husband has visited for years ; and where he 
joined (in Society) sixty persons. Next Friday, we are to see them 
again, and he purposes to enquire into the state of those which remain. 
There are, in many parts about here, some serious hearers, and we wish 
them all to be brought into a regular discipline. My husband has been 
at near ^500 expense in building a small Preaching-house, that, if he 
should be removed, they may have a fold to prevent them from being 
scattered. But were they joined (in Society) now, it would be far more 
likely to answer the end. On this subject we wish to have a little con- 
versation with you. 

" I am your affectionate servant, 

"Mary Fletcher." 

Two months after this, Fletcher was temporarily disabled 
by an accident, mentioned in a long letter to Lady Mary 
Fitzgerald, from which the following is extracted : — 

"Madeley, August 28, 1782. 

" My Honoured Friend, — The Lord has peculiar favours in store 
for your ladyship, and for me ; the proof is, that we are afflicted. Have 
you been in a weak state of health ? I have had the honour to drink of 
your cup. The influenza laid me down ; and, when I was partly well, 
I broke my shin against a bench, in consequence of which I am confined 
by a bad leg to my bed, where I write this. 

"You still complain of vile self. Let vile self be reduced to order, 
and, though he be a bad master, he will become an excellent servant. 
Do this, by letting the Lord, the Maker, the Preserver, the Redeemer, 



1 A term well understood by Methodists : a meeting of the most 
spiritual people who met in class. 

2 Arminian Magazine, 1790, p. 391. 



Wesley's Designated Successor. 



[1782. 



the Lover of your soul, ascend upon the throne of your thoughts, will, 
and affections. Who deserves to engross them better than He does ? 
Is not He your first Lord, your best Husband, your most faithful Friend, 
and your greatest Benefactor ? Oh ! allow Jehovah, the Supreme Being, 
to be to you what He deserves to be, All in all. One lively act of 
faith, one assent and consent to this delightful truth, that your Father, 
who is in heaven, loves you a thousand times more than you love your 
idol (for God's love is, like Himself, infinite and boundless), will set 
your heart at liberty, and even make it dance for joy. What, if to this 
ravishing consideration, you add the transporting truth, that the Son of 
God, fairer than the sons of men and brighter than the angels, has 
loved you unto death, to the death of the cross, and loves you still more 
than all your friends do, were their love collected into one heart, could 
you help thinking, with a degree of joyous gratitude, of such an instance 
of Divine condescension ? No, your vile self would be ennobled, raised, 
expanded, and set at liberty by this evangelical thought. Self would 
be nobody ; Emmanuel would be all in all. You would be so employed 
in praising your Father's mercy, and your Saviour's love and tenderness, 
that you would have but little time to speak either of good or bad self. 
When self is forgotten, as not/zingbefove God, you put self in its proper 
place ; and you make room for the heavenly Being, whose holy and 
happy existence you are to shadow out. If you have left off attending 
on the Princess, 1 attend on the Prince of Peace with double diligence. 

''Shall we ever have the honour of seeing you, my lady ? My wife, 
who joins in respectful love and thanks to your ladyship, for your re- 
membrance of her, says, she will do her best to render our cold house 
safe for jom, if not convenient. You would have had a repeated in- 
vitation from us, if a concern for your health, heightened by the bad 
weather, had not checked our desires to have an opportunity of assuring 
you how much we are devoted to your service. But the roads and 
weather beginning to mend, we venture to offer you the best apartment 
in our hermitage. I wish it were large enough to take in dear Mrs. 

G ,- and our dear friends in St. James's Place; but we have only 

two small rooms ; to which, however, you would be received with two 
enlarged hearts, — I mean those of your ladyship's obedient, devoted 
servants, 

"John and Mary Fletcher." 3 

How long Fletcher was laid aside from his public work 
there is no evidence to show. His position was somewhat 
trying, for the work was heavy, and Mr. Bayley, his curate, 



1 Probably, Princess Elizabeth Caroline, the third daughter of George 
the Second, one of the most excellent of women. She died, in St. 
James's Palace, in 1787. 

2 Probably Mrs. Grinfield, "one of Caesar's household," as White- 
field called her, an attendant at St. James's Palace. 

3 Letters, 1791, p. 287. 



Age 53.] 



A New Poem. 



had been obliged to return to Wesley's school at Kings- 
wood. This and other matters are referred to in the fol- 
lowing letter to Charles Wesley : — 

"Mabeley, Dece?nber 19, 1782. 

"Rev. and Dear Sir,— I thank you for your hint about exempli- 
fying the love of Christ and His Church. I hope we do. I was afraid, 
at first, to say much of the matter ; but, having lived thirteen months 
in my new state, I can tell you, Providence has reserved a Jbrize for me, 
and that my wife is far better to me than the Church to Christ, so that 
if the parallel fails, it will be on my side. 

"Be so good as to peruse the enclosed sheets. Mr. De Luc, to whom 
they are addressed, is reader to the Queen, and the author of some 
volumes of Letters to her : he is a true philosopher. I flatter myself, 
he will present my letter to the Queen. Do you find anything improper 
in the addition I have made to my poem ? I wish I were near you for 
your criticisms ; you would direct me, both as ajzW/and a Frenchman. 

' 1 1 have yet strength enough to do my parish duty without the help 
of a curate. O that the Lord would help me to do it acceptably and 
profitably ! The colliers began to rise in this neighbourhood : happily 
the cockatrice's egg was crushed, before the serpent came out. How- 
ever, I got many a hearty curse from the colliers, for the plain words I 
spoke on that occasion. I want to see days of power both within and 
without ; but, meantime, I would follow closely my light in the narrow 
path. 

" My wife joins me in respectful love to Mrs. Wesley and yourself; 
and, requesting an interest in your prayers for us, I remain, my dear 
Sir, your affectionate, obliged brother, servant, and son in the Gospel, 

"John Fletcher." 1 

The " poem," mentioned in this letter, was " La Grace et 
la Nature/' 5 which Fletcher had composed in Switzerland, 
and published in Geneva. He had now enlarged it, and 
wished to publish a second edition of it, and to dedicate the 
book to the Queen of King George the Third. This was 
done a few months before he died ; but, previous to com- 
mitting his sheets to the press, he submitted them to the 
criticism of Charles Wesley, Methodism's unequalled hymno- 
logist. 

This, however, was not the only poem on which Fletcher 
was now engaged. On November 30, 1782, the preliminaries 
of the peace with America were signed ; and, on January 20, 
1783, peace was concluded with France and Spain. The 



1 Letters, 1791, p. 288. 



512 



Wesley's Designated Successor. [1783- 



termination of the long and disastrous war gave no one 
greater joy than it did Fletcher. He celebrated it in 
another poem, written also in French, and dedicated to the 
Archbishop of Paris. 1 This was published, but is now 
extremely scarce. Fletcher enlarged it; and, in 1785, Mr. 
Gilpin translated it into English, and intended to dedicate 
his translation to the author; but, just as this English edition 
was being printed, Fletcher died, and the dedication, dated 
exactly a fortnight after Fletcher's death, was, " To the 
Honoured Mrs. Mary de la Flechere, of Madeley, in Shrop- 
shire." The title of the poem was, "An Essay upon the 
Peace of 1783. Dedicated to the Archbishop of Paris. 
Translated from the French of the Rev. J. Fletcher, late 
Vicar of Madeley. By the Rev. J. Gilpin, Vicar of Wrock- 
wardine, Salop. London : Printed by R. Hindmarsh, 1785." 
4to, 79 pp. 

Want of space renders it impossible to furnish extracts 
from this poetical production. In rhyme and rhythm, 
Fletcher, or, more probably, his translator, was far from 
perfect ; but that the Vicar, bred among the inspiring 
scenery of Switzerland, was possessed of real poetic genius, 
there cannot be a doubt His descriptions of a naval battle, 
and of a fight on land, and of the bombarding of Gibraltar, 
are very graphic. So also are his definitions of the passions 
which war too frequently evokes. 

Though hardly worth mentioning, it may be stated, that 
the only thing published by Fletcher, in the year 1782, was 
the following : " A Race for Eternal Life : being an Extract 
from the Heavenly Footman. A Sermon on 1 Cor. ix. 24 : 
written by the Author of the ' Pilgrim's Progress.' By the 
Rev. Mr. Fletcher. London : printed by R: Hindmarsh." 
1 2 mo, 16 pp. Fletcher says: — 

"This extract is published, — 1. To stir up lazy and inconsistent 
Arminian professors, who assert that we should work out our own sal- 
vation with all diligence, and yet neglect doing it. And, 2. To convince 
of partiality the contentious Calvinists, who quarrel with their brethren 
for preaching consistently the very same doctrine, which is i?iconsist- 
ently maintained by their orthodox teachers, among whom pious John 
Bunyan stands in the first rank." 

1 Fletcher's dedication is dated, "Madeley, Salop, January 28, 1784." 



age 53 ] Nathaniel Gilbert and Melville Home. 513 



About this time, two young men were introduced to 
Fletcher, whom he helped to the utmost of his power, and 
who, soon afterwards, attained distinction, as clergymen of 
the Church of England. 

One of these was Nathaniel Gilbert, the eldest son of 
Nathaniel Gilbert, Esq., Speaker of the House of Assembly 
in Antigua, and who formed the first Methodist Society in 
the West Indies. In 1759, he had requested Fletcher to 
accompany him to the Western Archipelago ; but Fletcher 
had declined, on the ground that he had neither " sufficient 
zeal, nor grace, nor talents" for such missionary work. His 
son, Nathaniel, was sent to England at the age of seven 
(about the year 1761), and, three years later, was placed 
under the care of the Rev. Mr. Hatton, of Water's Upton, in 
Shropshire, where he acquired a knowledge of the Latin and 
Greek languages. On returning to Antigua, he found that 
the estate of his father was overwhelmed with debt, and that 
the subsistence of the family depended on a small jointure 
belonging to his mother. He came back to England; settled 
in the parish of Madeley ; enjoyed the advantages of Fletcher's 
ministry and counsels ; and devoted himself to God. On 
receiving episcopal ordination, the places of his ministerial 
labours were Bristol, London, Budworth, Sierra Leone, Aveley, 
and Bledlow. He was an eminently good and useful man ; 
and peacefully fell asleep in Jesus, in 1807, in the forty-sixth 
year of his age. 1 

The other youth, who greatly benefited by Fletcher's 
example and advice, was Melville Horne, who, for a few 
years, was one of Wesley's Itinerant Preachers, and then was 
ordained for the ministry of the Church of England. Melville 
Horne was a remarkable man, of whom it would be an easy 
and pleasant task to write a more than ordinary biography. 
Suffice it to say here, that, a year after Fletcher's death, he 
became the officiating minister in Fletcher's church ; that, in 
1792, he and his friend Gilbert went as missionaries to Sierra 
Leone ; that, on his return in 1794, he was appointed Chap- 
lain of Magdalen Chapel, Bristol ; and then became Vicar 
of Olney. 2 This is not the place to record his subsequent 

1 Christian Observer, 1807, pp. 768-772. 

2 Unpublished letters. 

33 



Wesley's Designated Successor. [1783. 



career of distinguished usefulness ; but the testimony of such 
a man, concerning Fletcher, is worthy of being quoted. Many 
years after his first introduction to Fletcher, he wrote : — 

" On all my visits to Mr. Fletcher, I derived the highest pleasure and 
edification. I not only had the opportunity of hearing many excellent 
sermons, but of seeing him in the privacies of life ; and I know not which 
most to venerate, — his public or his private character. Grave and dig- 
nified in his deportment and manners, he yet excelled in all the courtesies 
of the accomplished gentleman. In every company, he appeared as the 
least, the last, and the servant of all. From head to foot, he was clothed 
with humility ; while the heavenly-mindedness of an angel shone from 
his countenance, and sparkled in his eyes. His religion was without 
labour, and without effort ; for . Christianity was not only his great busi- 
ness, but his very element and nature. As a mortal man, he doubtless 
had his errors and failings ; but what they were, they who knew him 
best would find it difficult to say ; for he appeared as an instrument of 
heavenly minstrelsy always attuned to the Master's touch. 

" In every view, he was a great man, and entitled to rank in the very 
first class of ministers ; but it was his goodness that raised him above 
all the ministers of his day. 

"On my occasional visits to Madeley, I was struck with several things. 
Once, when preaching on Noah as a type of Christ, he was in the 
midst of a most animated description of the terrible day of the Lord, 
when he suddenly paused. Every feature of his expressive countenance 
was marked with painful feeling ; and, striking his forehead with the 
palm of his hand, he exclaimed, ' Wretched man that I am ! Beloved 
brethren, it often cuts me to the soul, as it does at this moment, to 
reflect, that, while I have been endeavouring, by the force of truth, by 
the beauty of holiness, and even by the terrors of the Lord, to bring you 
to walk in the peaceable paths of righteousness, I am, with respect to 
many of you who reject the Gospel, only tying millstones round your 
necks, to sink you deeper in perdition ! ' The whole congregation was 
electrified, and it was some time before he could resume his subject. 

" On another occasion, after the morning service, he asked if any of 
the congregation could give him the address of a sick man whom he 
was desired to visit. He was answered, 'He is dead, Sir.' 'Dead! 
dead ! ' he exclaimed ; ' another soul launched into eternity ! What 
can I do for him now ? Why, my friends, will you so frequently serve 
me in this manner ? I am not informed you are ill till I find you dying, 
or hear that you are dead.' Then sitting down, he covered his head 
with his gown, and, when the congregation had retired, walked home 
crushed with sorrow. 

" One New Year's Day, Gilbert and myself dined with him, as did 
also a pious young man and his wife. After he had entertained us with 
much pious and instructive conversation, as we all stood around the fire 
and were ready to separate, he took Gilbert's hand and mine and joined 
them together, and said, ' You two young men are united by blood, by 



Age 53.] Melville Home's Anecdotes concerning Fletcher. 515 



friendship, and by your destination to the blessed service of the sanc- 
tuary.' Then, turning- to the young man and his wife, he remarked, 
' Do you also, whom God has joined in the tenderest of earthly bonds, 
join hands, and I will take that of my beloved wife.' This being done, 
he continued, ' And now what shall we render unto the Lord for all His 
benefits ? What blessings have we received ! What mercies have 
followed us the last year ! This is the first day of a new year. Let 11s 
give our whole soul to God. Let us start afresh on the road to immor- 
tality. Forgetting the things that are behind, let us press toward the 
mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.' And 
then, lifting his eyes to heaven, he prayed for the whole of us most 
fervently and affectionately." 1 

After this account of the covenant service in Fletcher's 
vicarage, Mr. Home proceeds to relate other anecdotes which 
came within his own personal knowledge. He writes : — 

"In the contests of humility, kindness, and affection, it was impossible 
to surpass Mr. Fletcher. On one occasion, the Rev. Moseley Cheek 
had been preaching in his parish ; and, on their way home to Madeley, 
in a dark night, and along a deep, dirty road, Mr. Fletcher carefully 
held the lantern to Mr. Cheek, while he himself walked through the 
mire. Mr. Cheek made fruitless attempts to take the lantern from him ; 
Mr. Fletcher replying to his protests, ' What, my brother, have you 
been holding up the glorious light of the Gospel, and will you not 
permit me to hold this dim taper to your feet ? ' 

"At another time, the Rev. Mr. Gilpin perceiving a funeral waiting 
at the church gate, took the surplice and commenced the sen-ice ; but 
he had hardly got into the desk when Mr. Fletcher, who had been 
visiting a sick person, came into the church, and gently drawing away 
a lad who was officiating in the absence of the clerk, took his place. 
After the sen-ice was ended, he obsened that he could not bear to see 
the place of an inferior servant of the Church improperly filled up with- 
out attempting to supply it himself with a greater degree of decorum 
and reverence. 

" Once, when my coat was dusty with riding, he insisted on brushing 
it, but objected to let me perform the same office for himself. Mrs. 
Fletcher, who perceived our contest, said, with a smile, ' Then suffer 
me to do it ; for I assure you, my dear, you need it as much as Mr. 
Home.' ■ If you please, my love,' was the reply, 'you shall do it, for 
you are a part of myself.' " 2 

"Some of these anecdotes," says Mr. Cox, "may, at first sight, 
appear too trivial for publication ; but they are highly descriptive of 
Mr. Fletcher's general demeanour; and, as Rosseau obsenes, 'The 



1 Cox's "Life of Fletcher," p. 147. 

2 Ibid, p. 149. 



5i6 



Wesley* s Designated Successor. [1783- 



physiognomy does not show itself in great features, nor the character 
of a man in great actions. It is in trifles that the natural disposition 
discovers itself.' " 1 

While Fletcher was forming new friendships with young 
Nathaniel Gilbert and Melville Home, his old friends were 
rapidly dying. His generous host, Mr. Charles Greenwood, 
of Stoke Newington, triumphantly exchanged mortality for 
eternal life on February 21, 1 783, on which occasion Fletcher 
wrote the following to Mrs. Thornton : — 

" Madeley, March 3, 1783. 

" My Dear Friend, — Yesterday, I received your melancholy joyful 
letter as I came from the sacrament, where the grace of God had armed 
me to meet the news. And is my merciful host gone to reap the fruit of 
his mercy to me ? I thought I should have been permitted to go first, 
and welcome him into everlasting habitations ; but Providence has 
ordered it otherwise, and I am left behind to say, with you and dear 
Mrs. Greenwood, ' The Lord gave and has taken away ; blessed be the 
name of the Lord.' The glory with which Mr. Greenwood's setting sun 
was gilded, is the greatest comfort by which heaven could alleviate his 
loss. Let me die as he died, and let my last end be like his ! I was so 
affected by your account that I could not help reading part of your letter 
at church in the afternoon, and desiring all the congregation to join 
me in thanksgiving for the late mercies God has vouchsafed to my 
generous benefactor. On such occasions, let sighs be lost in praise, 
and repining in humble submission and thankful acquiescence. I hope 
dear Mrs. Greenwood mixes tears of joy with tears of sorrow. Who 
would not be landed on the other side of the stream of time if he were 
sure of such a passage ? Who would wish his best friend back on the 
shores of sorrow so triumphantly left by Mr. Greenwood ? 

" So Mr. and Mrs. Perronet are no more ; and Lazarus is still alive ! 
What scenes does this world afford ! But the most amazing is that of 
Emmanuel crucified, and offering US pardons and crowns of glory ! " 2 

Another letter, written three months after this, was 
addressed to John Valton, the Methodist itinerant, who 
preached at Cross Hall to the wedding party on the evening 
of Fletcher's marriage. 

" Madeley, July, 1783. 
" Our dear friend's acceptable favour gave us much pleasure, though 
we have been so long in thanking him for it. 

" Never did we imagine till lately how great your trial has been about 



1 Cox's " Life of Fletcher," p. 150. 

2 Letters, 1791, p. 290. 



Age 53.] 



Letter to John Valton. 



517 



the house at Birstal. 1 But how gracious is the Lord ! How has He 
here paid you by the refreshing shower which has since distilled as the 
dew on the grass. O what comfortable accounts have reached us of the 
wonderful revival in your circuit. 2 In this my heart does indeed rejoice. 

" God is good unto us also. He has not left us without encourage- 
ment. For some time past, we have scarcely had a week in which one 
or more has not been set at liberty. But we are called, I believe, to 
leave them for a little while, and to spend a few weeks in Dublin. They 
complain of this, but the will of the Lofd must be done. When He 
calls, even life itself must not be esteemed too dear. 

" You will be thankful to hear that my best earthly friend continues 
in tolerable health, though neither of us is strong. We are more and 
more sensible of the lovingkindness of the Lord in casting our lot 
together. Every day helps us to praise Him more and more for His 
condescension and goodness to such unworthy worms. I speak thus 
freely to you because you were a witness of the beginning of our pilgrim- 
age together. I see many professors, and many really in earnest ; but, 
alas ! very seldom any who can warm one's heart with the deep things 
of God. O for a deeper baptism of the Spirit ! I want that promise 
more fully accomplished, ' I and my Father will come, and will make 
our abode with you.' 

" Praying that the Lord may be with you all at the ensuing Confer- 
ence, we remain, dear brother, your affectionate friends, 

" John and Mary Fletcher." 34 

The foregoing letter mentions an intended visit to Dublin. 
It has been already stated that Fletcher received an invita- 
tion from the Dublin Methodists to visit them in 1782; and 
that he was then obliged to decline their invitation. Now 
his way to Ireland seemed open. Mrs. Fletcher writes : — 

" 1783, August 5. Since May 22 " [the date of the last entry in her 
journal], "a fever has been in the parish, which took off many whom 



1 The Methodist meeting-house, erected, under the auspices of John 
Nelson, about the year 1751 . The trouble, at this time, arose out of 
the demand of the trustees to elect, after Wesley's death, their own 
preachers, and to order them to preach in Birstal chapel twice every 
Sunday, every Christmas Day, New Year's Day, and Good Friday, and 
also every Thursday night. (See " Life and Times of Wesley," vol. iii., 
PP- 373-3*3-) 

2 See an account of this remarkable work of God in the " Life and 
Labours of the Rev. John Valton, edited by Joseph Sutcliffe, A.M., 
1830," pp. 1 04- 1 14. 

3 Methodist Magazine, 1798, p. 598. 

4 It is said that, after his marriage, Fletcher, when writing to his 
friends, always subscribed his letters " John and Mary -Fletcher." 
(See " Six Letters of the late Rev. J. Fletcher. Bath, 1788." izmo, 
20 pp.) 



5i8 



Wesley s Designated Successor. 



[1783. 



we saw it our duty to attend. It brought eternity very near, and that 
always does me good. It came into our family, and Sally " [Lawrence] 
"was attacked with it; but God raised her up again in a wonderful 
manner. Soon after her recovery, Dr. Coke came, on his way from 
Dublin, and brought letters to each of us. We went to church, where 
the doctor preached. When we returned home, I followed my dear to 
his study, and told him if he saw it his call to go to Dublin, I saw it 
mine to go with him. Since that day, we have been preparing for our 
journey. My dear husband's health is not very good. What the Lord 
will do with us I know not. We are, however, ready for setting off." 

Five weeks after this, Mrs. Fletcher wrote again in her 
journal as follows : — 

" 1783, September 12, William Street, Dublin. This day of our birth 
calls for solemn praise. I say our birth, because, as far as we can 
learn, my dear Mr. Fletcher was born on the same day ten years 
before me. 

' ' With the prayers and blessings of many of our friends, we set off 
from Madeley on Tuesday, August 12. At night, we were affectionately 
received by Mrs. Glynne, of Shrewsbury, whose love to the children of 
God does not grow cold. My dear husband preached on the danger of 
being ashamed of the Gospel. 

" The next day, we pursued our journey as far as Llangollen, in Wales, 
where we abode all night. Enquiring, as we walked about the town, 
whether they had any praying people among them, the poor things 
answered us in the best manner they could, and said, 'Yes, Sir, there 
are some people who pray in houses at the other end of the town, but 
we know not what they be. This very night a man is to preach in their 
chapel.' We went to the place, and found a few poor people gathered 
in a building which, I believe, was part of an old house. The preacher 
seemed very earnest, but we could not understand a word he said, except 
ogoniant and gwaed — glory and blood ; which, with much emphasis, he 
often repeated. After we were returned to our inn, a few, who could 
understand English, came to us, and desired my dear to give them a 
sermon in the morning, which he did, on these words, ' This is His com- 
mandment, that we should believe on the name of His Son, Jesus Christ, 
and love one another, as He hath given us commandment.' It was a 
good time, and several were present who understood English. 

"We then sent off for Conway, and, on Friday afternoon, reached 
Holyhead. Mr. Fletcher was very poorly, and a swelling on his face 
now broke, which gave him much inconvenience ; but, on Saturday 
morning, we embarked. Mr. Fletcher was not affected by the sea, but 
I was very ill. About one o'clock on Sunday morning, we cast anchor 
three miles from Dublin ; and, at five, reached the Hotel on Dublin 
Quay. 

"We now abide with our hospitable friends, Mr. and Mrs. Smyth, in 
William Street, and have seen much of the Lord's hand in bringing us 



Age 54 ] Fletcher and his Wife visit Dublin. 519 



hither. My dear husband has been favoured with much unction in 
preaching the word. The present (Methodist) preachers in Dublin, 
brothers Rutherford and Jackson, are simple, pious men, and respect 
that command, 'In honour preferring one another.' They heartily 
rejoice in the message my dear husband delivers among them. I feel 
much liberty in meeting the classes. Here are a few truly athirst for 
full salvation. Our kind and generous host and hostess allow us all 
freedom in their house, for the glory of God, and the good of His 
people ; and, as their servants also are pious, upright persons, we can 
here worship with them in calm and brotherly love." 

Before referring to the testimonies of other persons, it 
may be best to complete what Mrs. Fletcher has to say- 
concerning this evangelistic visit to the sister island. She 
writes : — 

"Madeley, October 30. On the 7th of this month, we left Dublin, 
and embarked for Holyhead. In the night, the wind grew high. My 
husband, myself, and also Sally, were so ill, we could scarce speak, or 
look towards each other. Since our return, I have closely examined 
what I have lost or got in these last three months. I praise the Lord 
that we went to Dublin, and that for various reasons. There are some 
there with whom I found much fellowship ; at whose feet I sat, and, 
I trust, learned many useful lessons. My dear Mr. Fletcher preached 
in several places besides the (Methodist) Preaching-house in White- 
Friars-street, both to the French and English, and we had some re- 
markable proofs that he was called there by God. 

"Since our return, my dear husband has taken another journey of 
about two hundred miles, 1 from which he has suffered a good deal. 
His face is not yet well ; but the unwearied patience, wherewith he 
goes through all, is to me a continual lesson. 

" November 12. We see another anniversary of our blessed union, 
and are yet more happy, and more tender towards each other; and, 
what is better, our souls get nearer God. We are more spiritual, and 
live more for eternity. ' ' 2 

Henry Moore, Wesley's sturdy Itinerant, was appointed to 
the Dublin Circuit, three years after Fletcher's visit, and, in 
1 8 1 8, wrote : — 

"Never did I see such deep impressions made on the people of 
Dublin as by the truly evangelical labours of Mr. and Mrs. Fletcher, 



1 This was a journey to Bristol, whither he escorted his hostess, Mrs. 
Smyth, Lady Mary Fitzgerald, and the eldest daughter of the Rev. 
Edward Smyth. (" Life and Times of the Countess of Huntingdon," vol. 
ii., p. 195.) 

2 "Mrs. Fletcher's Life," by H. Moore, p. 155. 



5 20 



Wesley* s Designated Successor. 



[1783* 



except, perhaps, in the very short visits of Mr. Wesley. A great revival 
of pure religion followed in the Dublin Society. That Society had 
usually consisted of about 500 persons, but it soon increased to upwards 
of 1000, and has never since fallen below that number. Such longing 
after entire conformity to the Son of God I never beheld. How wide 
this sacred influence might have extended, who can tell, if a poor 
sectarian spirit had not limited Mr. Fletcher's labours. On his arrival 
in Dublin, his host, Mr. Smyth, a distinguished and most respectable 
gentleman, applied to the rector of St. Andrew's Parish, in which he 
lived, to allow Mr. Fletcher to preach in his church, and this was 
immediately granted. The church was crowded to excess. Mr. Fletcher's 
text was, 'Almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian.' His earnest- 
ness and power astonished the congregation, some of whom seemed to 
doubt if he were not more than human. But, alas ! it was soon known 
that he preached on the evening of that same day at the Methodist 
Preaching-house ; and the pulpits of the churches were immediately 
closed against him, with the exception of that of the French Church. 
The first time he preached there, his text was Hebrews x. 32, when he 
brought before the congregation the faith of their ancestors. When 
some of them were asked, ' Why did you go to hear Mr. Fletcher, when 
you could not understand a word he said?' they answered, 'We went 
to look at him, for heaven seemed to beam from his countenance.' " 1 

Mr. Henry Brooke, 2 who took a leading part in inviting 
Fletcher to visit Dublin, wrote : — 

" 1783, September 6. The same grace and power which attend Mr. 
Fletcher's pulpit lectures, and gather innumerable crowds of hungering, 
thirsting souls to flock to his ministry, also attend his conversation in 
private. He seems never — no, never — for a moment, to turn his eye 
from the one great object of our faith and love ; and he continually stirs 
up all around him to love and praise. He appears to live and breathe 
nothing else." 

• In another letter, to his father, Mr. Brooke observed : — 

"I wish it were in my power to convey to you the substance and 
energy of those precious and excellent discourses, with which we are 
frequently favoured from Mr. Fletcher. His words are living sparks, 
rushing from the furnace of divine love glowing in his heart." 

Mr. Brooke, in a letter to the Rev. J. Gilpin, the translator 
of Fletcher's " Portrait of St. Paul, 5 ' remarked : — 

"When Mr. Fletcher was about to leave us, knowing the scanty 
pittance he received from his parish, we thought it but an act of 



1 "Mrs. Fletcher's Life," by H. Moore, p. 154. 

2 Mr. Brooke is described, in Wesley's "Last Will and Testament," 
as a " Painter." 



Age 54] Original Letter from the Dublin Methodists. 521 



common honesty to refund him the expense he had been at in coming 
to Dublin, and to bear his charges back again to Madeley. Accord- 
ingly, after he had preached on the last evening of his stay among us, 
the stewards and trustees united to press his acceptance of a small 
purse, not as a present, but as a debt justly due to him. But he firmly 
and absolutely refused it. At length, being very urgent with him and 
importunate to an excess, he took the purse in his hand, and said, ' Do 
you really force it upon me ? Must I accept it ? Is it entirely mine ? 
and may I do what I please with it ?' ' Yes, yes,' we all replied. ' God 
be praised then ! God be praised ! ' cried he, raising his eyes towards 
heaven. ' What a mercy is here ! I heard some of you complaining 
that your Poor's Fund was never so low before ; take this purse ; God 
has sent it to you ; raised it among yourselves ; and bestowed it upon 
your poor. You cannot deny me ; it is sacred to them. God be praised ! 
I thank you, I heartily thank you, my dear kind brethren.' " 1 

A number of other anecdotes respecting this memorable 
visit, all more or less authentic, might be inserted ; but 
enough has been said to show that it must always be one of 
the great events in the history of Methodism in Dublin. 

Soon after the return to Madeley of Fletcher and his wife, 
they received the following, hitherto unpublished letter, signed 
by one hundred and fifty-one members of the Dublin Metho- 
dist Society, the signature of " Henry Brooke " standing 
first. 

"1783, October. 

" Rev. and Very Dear Sir and Madam, — Your kindness in 
accepting our united invitation, your labour of love in crossing the 
sea to visit us, and your spending body and soul for our profit while 
among us, demand a return of acknowledgment and gratitude, which 
we find ourselves, jointly and severally, as unable to express as to 
repay. 

" Confession of our debt is the utmost extent of our ability. As for 
reward, we must call upon Him to answer for us, who has already paid 
the mighty debt due by the whole world. May He, then, even that 
Master, the sound of whose feet was heard behind you, and the power 
of whose Spirit clothed your word in private and in public, — may He 
abundantly reward both your bodies and souls, and, according to the 
measure you have meted out, measure to you again a hundred-fold, 
pressed down, shaken together, and running over into your own bosoms 
in time and eternity. 

" Your liberality to the sick poor, in the generous donation of twenty- 
five guineas, has gladdened the hearts of numbers, besides those who 



1 "Life of Mr. Henry Brooke," by Isaac D'Olier, LL.D., pp. 102— 
121. 



Wesley's Designated Successor. 



[1783. 



are partakers of your alms ; for you have nobly honoured the Lord by 
your free ministry, and set your seal to His Word with your substance. 
May you be watered again and again abundantly for it ! 

"We can only pray for the prosperity of your labours where the 
adorable providence of God has cast 3^our lot in His vineyard ; and 
hope that the Lord may give the people to see and know (in mercy and 
not in judgment) that a prophet has been among them. 

"Lastly, we entreat that, after the example of St. Paul, you will 
remember us all in your daily and nightly addresses to the throne of 
grace, that the precious seed, which has been sown, may bring forth 
its hundred-fold increase, to our joint happiness in the kingdom of God." 

In the month of November, a reply was sent to this, from 
which the following extract is taken : — 

"Madeley, November, 1783. 
" To the Society in Dublin. 
" To all the dear Brethren, who, after kindly inviting John and Mary 
Fletcher, patiently bearing with them and their infirmities, and enter- 
taining them in the most hospitable manner, have added, to all their 
former favours, that of thanking them for their most pleasant and pro- 
fitable journey. 

"We had felt shame enough under the sense of your kindness and 
patience towards us, and of our unprofitableness towards you, when at 
Dublin. We owed you the letter of thanks you have gratuitously sent 
to us. But in all things, you will have the pre-eminence, and we are 
glad to drink the cup of humility at your feet If your profuse liberality 
toward us abounded to the comfort of our poor brethren, we doubly 
rejoice ors. your account, and on theirs. 

" When we see so many of your dear names, we rejoice in hope that 
they are enrolled on the list of the dear people, whom our great High 
Priest bears, not on the breastplate as Aaron, but on His bleeding 
hands, and in His very heart, which is the overflowing and ever-flowing 
fountain of divine and brotherly love. Let our worthless names still 
find a place in your memory, when you remember your brethren distant 
in the flesh, but near in the Spirit. Among such, vouchsafe to reckon 
your very affectionate and truly obliged servants in Christ, 

"John and Mary Fletcher." 

To their Irish host, William Smyth, Esq., Fletcher wrote 
as follows : — 

"Madeley, November, 1783. 
"Dear Sir, — The many and great favours with which you loaded 
us, during our long stay under your hospitable roof, have been, are now, 
and, we trust, ever shall be deeply engraven on our hearts. You united, 
for us, Irish hospitality, English cordiality, and French politeness. And 
now, Sir, what shall we say ? 



Age 54.] Unpublished Pamphlet by Fletcher. 523 



"You are our generous benefactor, and we are your affectionate, 
though unprofitable servants. In one sense, we are on a level with 
those to whom you show charity in the streets : we can do nothing but 
pray for you and yours. You kindly received us for Christ's sake ; may 
God receive you freely for His sake also ! You bore with our infirmities ; 
the Lord bear with yours ! You let your servant serve us ; the Lord give 
all His sen-ants and His angels charge concerning you ! You gave us 
a most comfortable apartment, next your own chamber ; the Lord grant 
you eternal rest with Himself in His heavenly mansions ! You fed us 
with the richest food ; may the Giver of every perfect gift fit you for a 
place at His table, and may you rank there with Abraham, Isaac, and 
Jacob ! You gave us wines ; may you drink, with Christ Himself, the 
fruit of the vine, new in your Father's kingdom ! " 1 

It has been asserted, that, "towards the close of his life," 
Fletcher "abstained entirely from wine and strong drink;" 2 
but the evidence in favour of this is dubious, and, certainly, 
the last sentence of the foregoing letter seems to disprove it. 
Throughout the whole of his life, he was exceedingly tem- 
perate in eating and drinking ; but it may fairly be doubted 
whether Fletcher was ever a " teetotaler." 3 It is a curious 
fact, however, that in this very year, 1783, he wrote a pam- 
phlet bearing upon the subject of drunkenness and other 
matters, which he intended to be published, but which, 
I believe, never was. It was sent to " Mr. Hindmarsh, 
printer, in Baker's Court, Holborn Bars, London," together 
with a letter of instructions as to the printing of it, dated, 
" Madeley, November 20, 1783." When printed, Mr. Hind- 
marsh was requested to send, as soon as possible, a copy to 
every member of Parliament. The title was, "Three National 
Grievances, — the Increase of Taxes, the Hardships of Unequal 
Taxation, and the Continual Rise of the Poor's Rates : with 
the Causes and Remedies of these Evils: Humbly Submitted 
to the Consideration of the Legislature, in a Letter to the 
Right Honorable Lord John Cavendish, Chancellor of the 



1 Letters, 1791, p. 293. 

- Local Preachers' 1 Magazine, 1853, p. 172. 

3 Jonathan Crowther, President of the Methodist Conference in 1819, 
says, in his unpublished autobiography : — 

"Mr. Yates, of Madeley, told me that, one cold, snowy, frosty day, 
when Mr. Fletcher called at his house, as he was sallying out to visit 
his parishioners, he asked him to take a little punch, which was then 
upon the table, after dinner. Mr. Fletcher consented, but said, ' First, 
let us ask a blessing : it makes it twice as good.' " 



5^4 



Wesley s Designated Successor. 



[1783. 



Exchequer, and one of the Lords of the Treasury. London : 
November, 1783." 

The temptation is strong to insert this remarkable pro- 
duction in extenso ; but to do so, in a chapter like the present, 
would be an inconvenient excrescence ; besides, want of space 
makes it impossible. Suffice it to say, that, under the heading 
of the first " Grievance," Fletcher argues, that, the decrease 
of the national revenue, and consequent increase of the national 
taxation, were occasioned by "the amazing progress of smug- 
gling." He says, " No one can deny that vast quantities Of 
foreign brandy, rum, gin, tobacco, snuff, tea, wines of all sorts, 
and a variety of other articles, are fraudulently imported 
and that these, on the sea-coast, are sold at " half the price 
which they cost the conscientious merchant." "Many thou- 
sands of lawless men are perpetually forming or executing 
schemes, to defraud the Government, and reduce us to 
beggary." Fletcher says, it was once his opinion that "smug- 
gling might be prevented, by the combined services of the 
army and navy ; but," he adds, " as most of the inferior 
Custom House officers on the coast, with ^50 a year, live 
in splendour, and as the evil is deeply rooted, I am now 
convinced that the only way to check it is to take off the 
duties, to lessen the number of officers in both Customs and 
Excise, and to advance the salaries of those who are retained, 
If I prove that, by lessening the duties, the revenue will be 
increased and smuggling suppressed, there can be no objection 
to the adoption of the plan proposed." Fletcher enters into 
many details to establish his theory ; and thus, long before 
the days of Peel and Gladstone, took the part of free-traders. 

His chapter on unequal taxation must be passed; but some 
of his statements, in the third, deserve notice. He insists 
that — 

" The continual increase of the Poor Rates is occasioned by the cor- 
rupted morals of the lower classes of the people, who are seduced into 
idleness and neglect of their families, in the public-houses to be met 
with at every turn. There are also multitudes of private retailers of 
smuggled spirits, who, by enticing their neighbours into drunkenness, 
entail ruin on them and their families. In some parishes, the number 
of these lawless retailers far exceeds that of the publicans. But to speak 
only of licensed houses, what multitudes of these are found all over 



Age 54.] Unpublished Pamphlet by Fletcher. 525 



England! In some places, almost every fifth house is one of those 
nurseries of vice." 

Terrible is the picture which Fletcher draws, respecting 
the ruinous consequences of drunkenness; and his arguments 
would help Sir Wilfrid Lawson to make a most effective 
speech on " Local Option" in the House of Commons. 

"If," continues Fletcher, "these paltry public-houses are the bane 
of the nation, let the legislative power interfere in England, as it has 
done in Holland. Let two-thirds of these nuisances be suppressed ; 
and by raising the licenses of the others, so as to indemnify the revenue, 
let the law put it out of the power of the idle fioor to set up these petty 
schools of idleness and vice. Then people of character will no longer 
be afraid to become publicans." 

In a " postscript," Fletcher refers to a pamphlet which 
states that — 

" Sixty thousand of the ablest young men in the kingdom, and one 
hundred thousand horses, are employed in smuggling, whilst one hundred 
thousand women and children make it their business to hawk about the 
country the articles which the men have smuggled. If these one hundred 
and sixty thousand people were employed in fishing, agriculture, spinning^ 
etc., their labour would amount annually to ^2,464,000, to which must 
be added the sum of ^1,820,000, the cost of keeping the one hundred 
thousand horses uses by smugglers. . . . The Dutch catch fish, on our 
coasts, to the yearly amount of one million sterling. . . . Fishing and 
smuggling never flourish together. ... In Scotland, there are upwards 
of ten thousand private stills," etc., etc. 

Thus Fletcher, the polemical divine, turned social reformer ; 
and his efforts to correct the crying evils of the age were not 
confined to the employment of his pen. In his own parish, 
there were eighteen public houses^ — all of them " nurseries 
for sin, particularly on Sunday evenings." He had long- 
desired to correct these abuses ; but had seldom been favoured 
with the services of a churchwarden willing to second his 
endeavours. Now he had one, who was resolved to act 
according to the oath he had taken. Fletcher visited several 
of these dens of iniquity every Sunday, and all of them in 
their turn. In every one of them, he bore a faithful testimony 
against their wickedness ; and, in some instances, his efforts 
were attended with much success. 1 



" Letter to Mons. H. L. De la Flechere," 1786, p. 16. 



526 



Wesley* s Designated Successor. [1783. 



At this period, trade was bad, taxes were crushing, and 
corn was dear. King George the Third, in his speech to 
" My Lords and Gentlemen," the members of the two Houses 
of Parliament, remarked, " The scarcity, and consequent high 
price of corn, requires your instant interposition." Corn was 
scarce, and, in many instances, it was bought and hoarded 
by execrable speculators, for the purpose of raising the price 
of it, and increasing their own blood- soaked profits. Fletcher 
was indignant, and proposed the formation of an association 
of persons of unblemished character : — 

" 1. To prosecute legally all engrossers and forestallers of the neces- 
saries of life. 

"2. If there be any laws against those who cause an artificial scarcity, 
by monopolizing the necessaries of life, — to apply to the magistrates to 
put such laws in force against the offenders, — and, if, through fear or 
favour, the magistrates refuse, to apply for redress to Quarter Sessions, 
or to the Court of King's Bench. 

"3. That the members of the Association subscribe, according to 
their ability, towards defraying the expense of detecting, and legally 
prosecuting the offenders." 

Fletcher added : — 

"If such a plan is entered upon, and carried on in this county" 
(Salop), "I will gladly become a subscriber of a guinea, provided no 
illegal stefis be taken by the associates.'''' 

This is copied from an unpublished manuscript in Fletcher's 
own handwriting. The following also is taken from another 
original manuscript, written by Fletcher : — 

" It is proposed — 

" 1. That Sunday Schools be set up in this parish, for such children 
as are employed all the week, and for those whose education has been 
neglected. 

"2. That, in those schools, children shall be taught to read and write, 
and shall be instructed in the principles of morality and piety. 

"3. That, in the Dale, in Madeley, and in Madeley Wood, there shall 
be a school for boys, and another for girls, — six schools in all." 

"4. That £20 be raised, by subscription, for this charity; namely, 
£i<\ for the salaries of six teachers ; which, at the rate of one shilling, 
per time, for fifty-two Sunday afternoons, excepting Easter- Day and 
Whit-Sunday, will amount to fifty shillings each teacher. The remaining 
£6 shall be laid out in tables, benches, books, paper, pens, and ink. 

"5. That, if the expenses incurred should run higher than is here 



age 54.] Sunday Schools at Made ley. 



527 



supposed, the subscribers shall be acquainted with it, and their charity 
shall be again solicited. 

"6. That, whosoever shall subscribe a guinea towards this charity 
shall be a director of it. 

"7. That, at a parish meeting, two treasurers shall be appointed to 
ask and to receive the contributions of those who shall be willing to 
encourage this charity. 

"8. That, three or four inspectors shall be appointed to visit these 
schools, to see that the children attend regularly, and that the masters 
do their duty by the children, and to make their report to the directors. 

'•' 9. That, a book shall be provided by the treasurers, in which they, 
or a secretary whom they shall appoint, shall yearly enter the sums 
subscribed, and the manner in which they are laid out ; and that such 
book shall be laid before the subscribers when they shall desire it. 

"10. That, another book shall be provided, in which the names of 
the masters and the scholars, belonging to each school, shall be entered. 

"11. And lastly, that, to encourage emulation, at a solemn visitation 
of these schools, once or twice a year, some premium shall be given 
to the children who distinguish themselves by their assiduity and 
improvement." 

This was rather elaborate legislation for the administration 
of a charity fund of £20 a year; but money, in 1783, was 
scarce, and the Sunday School institution was then in its 
infancy. 

For some years, Fletcher had had a school at Madeley, 
which he himself taught every day ; and he had also esta- 
blished a similar school in Madeley Wood. Now he com- 
menced his Sunday Schools, being, in this respect, almost 
contemporaneous with Raikes at Gloucester. 

"Three hundred children were soon gathered, whom he took every 
opportunity of instructing, by regular meetings, for some time before 
the schools were opened ; and these meetings he attended to the very 
last Thursday before his fatal illness. He gave the children little hymn- 
books ; and pointed them to some friend or neighbour, who would teach 
them the hymns, and instruct them to sing. Many of the little creatures 
would scarcely allow themselves time to eat or sleep, for the desire they 
had of learning their lessons. In ever} 7 meeting, after inquiring who 
had made the greatest proficiency, he never forgot to distinguish it by 
a little reward." 

" His proposals to the parish were received with the greatest unan- 
imity. Many, both of the rich and trading people, lent their helping 
hand, not only to defray the expense of teachers, but to raise a very 
convenient school-house in Coalbrookdale." 1 



1 "Letter to Mons. H. L. De la Flechere, 1786, pp. 17 and 18. 



528 Wesley s Designated Successor. [1783. 



The " Proposals " were prefaced with a statement of " the 
advantages likely to arise from Sunday Schools," which was 
as follows : — 

" Our parochial and national depravity turns upon two hinges, — the 
profanation of the Lord's day, and the immorality which flows from 
neglecting the education of children. Till these two great inlets of 
wickedness are stopped, we must expect to see our workhouses full of 
aged parents forsaken by their prodigal children ; of wives deserted 
by their faithless husbands ; or of the wretched offspring of lewd women, 
and idle and drunken men. Nay, we may expect to see the jails, and 
even the gallows, stocked with unhappy wretches, ready to fall a sacrifice 
to the safety of their neighbours, and the penal laws of their country. 

' ' Persons concerned for the welfare of the next generation, and well- 
wishers to the Church and State, have already set us a fine example in 
Stroud, Gloucester, Leeds, Manchester, Birmingham, Bristol, and in 
several country parishes. They have attempted to remedy these evils 
by setting up Sunday Schools, which, by keeping children from corrupting 
one another, by promoting their attendance on Divine worship, and by 
laying the first principles of useful knowledge in their minds, and of 
true piety in their hearts, — bid fair for a public reformation of manners ; 
and seem well calculated to nip in the bud the vices of ignorance and 
impiety, so common among the lower and more numerous classes of the 
people." 1 

It may be added, that the last productions of Fletcher's 
pen were an unfinished catechism, to be used in his Sunday 
Schools; prayers to be read by the children ; and "Hints" to 
the teachers. Among the last mentioned, were instructions 
respecting the correction of any child " guilty of lying, swear- 
ing, Sabbath-breaking, stealing, fighting, or disobedience;" 
and recommendations that the teachers should " attend the 
scholars to Divine worship " ; that they should " not break 
up too early in the evening, that being the time in which 
children are most likely to run into temptation;" and that 
" pious persons " should be induced to " visit and interrogate 
the children, in order that the whole might be carried on as 
a business sanctified by the Word of God, by prayer, and by 
Christian admonition." 2 

It would not be difficult to enlarge on facts and prin- 
ciples such as these ; but the intelligent reader can do this 
himself. 



1 " Letter to Mons. H. L. De la Flechere," 1786, p. 2^ 

2 Ibid, p. 63. 



Age 54-] The Rev. Henry Venn visits Fletcher, 529 



Before leaving the year 1783, one more incident must be 
introduced. At the close of the year, the celebrated Rev. 
Henry Venn visited Fletcher, at Madeley, and wrote : — 

" Mr. Fletcher is a genius, and a man of fire — all on the stretch to do 
good — to lose not a day, not an hour. He is married to a lady worthy 
of him, Miss Bosanquet, a lady with whom I was acquainted twenty- 
nine years ago. She was then sixteen, and bred up in all the pride of 
life ; her father being one of the chief merchants of London. By the 
grace of God, she, at that time, renounced the world, and gave up 
herself to the Lord. Since then, she has bred up seventy-four destitute 
young girls for service, and seen them placed out to her satisfaction ; 
and, instead of dressing, visiting, and conforming to all the vain and 
expensive customs of the world, she has been wholly employed in doing 
good. I left this happy house as Cecil, Secretary to Queen Elizabeth, 
left Bernard Gilpin's, saying, 'There dwells as much happiness as can 
be known on earth.' " 1 



1 " Life of Rev. Henry Venn," p. 377. 



34 



530 



Wesley' 's Designated Successor. 



[1784- 



CHAPTER XXVI. 



LAST DA YS ON EARTH. 



1784— 1785. 



LETCHER took a profound interest, not only in Sunday 



A Schools, which were being opened in various places, 
but in an institution which has long been the greatest of 
which the Methodists can boast. In 1783, Dr. Coke and a 
few of his friends drew up " A Plan of the Society for the 
Establishment of Missions among the Heathen." This 
curious and most interesting document is too long to be 
inserted here. Suffice it to say, there is reason to believe 
that Fletcher was one of Coke's counsellors. It has been 
already stated that, in the summer of 1783, the Doctor, on 
his way from Dublin, called at Madeley, and preached in 
Fletcher's church. Soon after this, Fletcher and his wife 
went to Dublin ; and now, at the beginning of the year 
1784, Coke forwarded to Fletcher the aforesaid "Plan," 
and a list of his missionary subscribers, twenty-six in number, 
seven of whom resided in Dublin. Is it chimerical to suppose 
that the formation of this Missionary Society was a subject 
of conversation between Coke and Fletcher, when the former 
was at Madeley, and that it was mainly through Fletcher's 
influence that so many of its first subscribers were Dublin 
Methodists ? It is a curious fact that neither of the Wesleys 
appeared in the list of contributors, the reason perhaps of 
which might be that they had not been consulted in drawing 
up the " Plan." Fletcher, however, subscribed £2 2s. od. of 
the first year's income, which amounted to £66 3s. od., and 
to him Coke sent the " Plan " and the report, and also the 
following letter appended : — 




Age 54.] 



Unpublished Letter. 



531 



"Near Plymouth, January 6, 1784. 

"My Very Dear Sir, — Lest Mr. Parker should neglect to send 
you one of our Plans for the establishing of foreign Missions, I take the 
liberty of doing it. Ten subscribers more, of two guineas per annum, 
have favoured me with their names. If you can get a few subscribers 
more, we shall be obliged to you. 

"We have now a very wonderful outpouring of the Spirit in the West 
of Cornwall. I have been obliged to make a winter campaign of it, and 
preach here and there out of doors. 

" I beg my affectionate respects to Mrs. Fletcher. I entreat you to 
pray for 

" Your most affectionate Friend and Brother, 

"Thomas Coke." 

At this period, Fletcher was engaged in the last of his 
literary works. The following, hitherto unpublished letter, 
may serve as an introduction to the essays Fletcher was 
now writing. It was addressed to the " Rev. Mr. Bouverot, 
Geneva and, though without date, was evidently written a 
few days before Fletcher's memorable visit to Dublin : — 

"The Society of Christian Philosophers, which you mention, seems, 
in this day, to be a useful Institution. The most redoubtable attacks 
upon religion come from our modern Sadducees, who say there is neither 
angel nor spirit ; and the famous Dr. Priestly openly maintains that we 
have no soul, or, at least, that it is no other than the animal spirits. It 
maybe, therefore, that God, who never leaves Himself without witnesses, 
has permitted this Society for the maintenance of a metaphysical doc- 
trine so opposite to that of materialism. ' Prove all things ; hold fast 
that which is good.' 

"A Swedish gentleman, called Baron Swedenborg, 1 published many 
pieces in England, and declared he had conversed with angels and 
spirits for more than forty years, and that with as much familiarity as 
with men. Some of his works have been translated into English. There 
is one, of which I have the original Latin by me, entitled, ' Mirabilia 
Coeli et Inferni,' and which I mean to send you as soon as I shall find 
a convenient opportunity. It is certain, if believers were more detached 
from earthly things, and more concentred in Christ by faith, they 
would converse with angels and with the spirits of the departed saints, 
as the Patriarchs and first Christians were accustomed to do. There 
would, indeed, in this, be some danger of following after piety, with a 
view to such an advantage, through a species of curiosity, which, if it 
ought not to be called the back door, yet would not deserve to be 
entitled the front, which consists in an humble faith disengaged from 
sense and from all self-seeking," etc., etc. 



1 Swedenborg died in 1772. 



532 



Wesley s Designated Successor. 



[1784. 



" I have not yet had leisure to cast my eyes over my ' Portrait of St. 
Paul.' Next week, at the invitation of many who love the Word of God, 
I mean to make a tour into Ireland, from whence I propose returning 
before winter. Mr. Wesley, who is eighty years of age, is now on a 
tour in the Low Countries, where he preaches, even at Amsterdam. 

" Assist me to bless God, who has sustained me hitherto, and who is 
my light and my salvation in Jesus Christ, to whom be glory for ever 
and ever ! Remember me before God in your prayers, as I have a con- 
tinual remembrance of you in mine." 

Fletcher's bold speculation, respecting the possibility of 
conversing with angels and the spirits of departed saints, 
may be passed in silence. The reader's attention must now 
be asked to the famous Dr. Priestley. 

This remarkable man was born at Fieldhead, near Leeds, 
in 1733. While a student at the Dissenting Academy, kept 
by Dr. Ashworth, at Daventry, he became an Arian. His 
subsequent career need not here be traced. It is enough to 
say, that, about the year 1767, while he was the minister of 
a large congregation of Dissenters at Leeds, he embraced 
Socinianism ; and that, about 1 7 8 1 , he wrote and published 
his " History of the Corruptions of Christianity," — some of 
the teachings of which work Fletcher felt it his duty to 
refute. Dr. Priestley died at Philadelphia, in the United 
States of America, in 1804. 

It has been already stated, that, early in the year 1785, 
Fletcher published a second and enlarged edition of his poem, 
entitled, "La Grace et la Nature." At the end of that work, 
the following advertisement was inserted: "Pret a etre publie 
en Anglois : A Rational Vindication of the Catholic Faith, 
respecting the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost : being 
the First Part of a Scriptural Vindication of Christ's Divinity-. 
Inscribed to the Rev. Dr. Priestley." 

The Rev. Joseph Benson, the quondam tutor of Lady 
Huntingdon's Trevecca College, when Fletcher was its presi- 
dent, says this "Rational Vindication" was left by Fletcher 
"not quite finished;" which assertion seems to clash with 
Fletcher's own advertisement just given. There can be no 
doubt it was as finished as Fletcher meant it to be ; though 
not as complete as Mr. Benson thought it ought to be, and 
as he himself tried to make it. In addition to this, how- 
ever, Fletcher began a second essay, entitled, " Socinianism 



Age 54-] " Rational Vindication of the Catholic Faith" 533 



Unscriptural ; or, the Prophets and Apostles vindicated from 
the Charge of holding the Doctrine of Christ's mere Humanity: 
being the Second Part of a Vindication of His Divinity. 
Inscribed to the Rev. Dr. Priestley." The first of these was 
intended to be an answer to Priestley's assertion that u the 
doctrine of the Trinity is irrational;" and the second to refute 
his equally unfounded dogma, that, the doctrine of Christ's 
"divinity has no proper foundation in the Old Testament, — 
the prophets speaking of the Messiah only as a man like 
themselves ;" nor in the " New Testament, — the Apostles 
never giving our Lord any higher title than that of a man 
approved of God." In Mr. Benson's opinion, both of the 
essays were left unfinished ; and it is certain that neither 
of them was published in Fletcher's lifetime. Rightly or 
wrongly, Mr. Benson — a very able theologian — undertook, 
after Fletcher's death, to write supplements to both, and then 
published them ; and these irrefutable productions of Mr. 
Benson's pen have, ever since 1 8 1 8, when he was the 
Methodist Connexional Editor, been improperly incorporated 
in Fletcher's " Collected Works." Mr. Benson's additions to 
Fletcher's essays are invaluable ; but they ought, in fairness 
to both authors, to be published separately. On this subject, 
however, nothing more need be added. Fletcher's replies to 
Priestley, which were printed a few years subsequent to his 
death, 1 were revised by Wesley, who writes, in his Journal : — 

" 1784, Saturday, March 27. I went to Madeley; and, at Mr. Fletcher's 
desire, revised his letters to Dr. Priestley. I think there is hardly another 

1 The titles were: — 1. "A Rational Vindication of the Catholic Faith: 
being the First Part of a Vindication of Christ's Divinity; inscribed to 
the Rev. Dr. Priestley, by J. Fletcher, Vicar of Madeley, Salop. Left 
imperfect by the Author, and now revised and finished, at Mrs. Fletcher's 
request, by Joseph Benson, Hull." i2mo, 223 pp. No date, but pub- 
lished in 1788 or 1789. The work consists of fourteen chapters, only 
four of which were written by Fletcher. The remaining ten were Mr. 
Benson's productions. 

2. " Socinianism Unscriptural; or, the Prophets and Apostles vin- 
dicated from the Charge of holding the Doctrine of Christ's mere 
Humanity : being the Second Part of a Vindication of His Divinity : 
inscribed to the Rev. Dr. Priestley, by the late Rev. John Fletcher, 
Vicar of Madeley, Salop. To which is added, a Demonstration of the 
want of Common Sense in the New Testament Writers, etc., etc., in a 
Series of Letters to the Rev. Mr. Wesley, by Joseph Benson. Bir- 
mingham: 1791." i2mo, 239pp. Fletcher's part of the volume occupies 
118 pages. 



534 



Wesley 1 s Designated Successor. 



[1784. 



man in England so fit to encounter him. — Sunday, 28. Notwithstanding 
the severe weather, the church was more than filled. I preached on 
part of the Epistle (Heb. ix. 13, etc.) ; in the afternoon, on ' the grace 
of God that bringeth salvation ; ' and I believe God applied it to many 
hearts." 

Never has there been a time when there was more need 
of essays like those of Fletcher than that which is now 
passing. Socinianism, in various shapes, even among many 
who think themselves orthodox, is rampant ; and the Metho- 
dist Book Committee would render incalculable service to 
the cause of Christian truth, by publishing in a separate form, 
and at as cheap a price as possible, Fletcher's two unanswer- 
able replies to the redoubtable Dr. Priestley. 

In his " Expostulatory Letter," Fletcher writes : — 

"While you invite archdeacons and bishops to defend their church 
and the divinity of their Saviour, may the voice of a poor country vicar 
be heard amidst the groans of the press which repeats your challenges ? 
Will not your sense of honour feel too great a disappointment in seeing 
so mean a person step forth to present you with an expostulatory letter, 
and to break a spear with you, on the very ground where you think 
yourself invincible, — philosophy, reason, and common sense ? 

" Conscious of the variety of your learning, and the greatness of your 
reputation, I apologize for my boldness, by observing, that the Church 
is my mother ; that the feeblest child has a right to cry out when his 
mother is stabbed to the heart ; and that, when the Divine crown of our 
Lord is publicly struck at, the least of believers may show his astonish- 
ment at the antichristian deed. 

"When the Socinians of the last century said that it was impossible 
to believe God and man were united in the person of our Lord, the 
Catholics replied, it was as easy to believe that God and man make one 
Christ, as to believe that the immortal soul and the mortal body are one 
man. And Dr. Sherlock added, that the best way for the Socinians to 
set aside this argument against the mystery of our Lord's incarnation, 
was to deny the union of soul and body, because they could not under- 
stand it; and openly to maintain, that man is a body without a soul, a 
compound of mere matter. 

"When that judicious divine dropped this hint, he little thought that 
some philosophers of our day would be so desperately bent upon divesting 
Christ of His Divine glory, that they would be content to die like dogs, 
without leaving any surviving part of themselves, so that they might win 
the day against the Catholic Church, and the divinity of our Lord. 

" I am sorry to observe that you have the dangerous honour to be at 
the head of these bold philosophers. Dr. Berkeley was so singular as 
to deny the existence of matter. According to his doctrine, there is 
nothing but spirit in the world, and matter exists only in our ideas. As 



Age 5+] Fletcher's Replies to Dr. Priestley. 535 



a rival of his singularity, you run into the opposite extreme ; you anni- 
hilate our souls ; you turn us into mere machines ; we are nothing but 
matter; and if you allow us any spirit, it is only such as can be distilled 
like spirits of wine. Thus, if we believe you both, being ground not 
only to atoms but to absolute nonentity between the two millstones of 
your preposterous and contrary mistakes, we have neither form nor 
substance, neither body nor soul ! 

" Glad am I, Sir, that when you made so free with the souls of men 
you did not pass your philosophical sponge over the existence of the 
Father of spirits, the great Soul which gives life and motion to the 
universe. But, though you spare the Father's dignity, you attack the 
Son's divinity ; you deny the sanctifying influences of the Holy Ghost ; 
and, by hasty strides, you cam- us back to a dwarf, mongrel Christianity, 
made up of materialism, Judaism, and the baptism of John. 

" To gain this inglorious end, in your ' History of the Corruptions of 
Christianity ' you collect the capital errors invented by fallen Christians 
in the corrupt ages of Christianity ; then, taking some of the most 
precious Gospel truths, you blend them with these errors, and rendering 
them all equally odious, you turn them promiscuously out of the Church 
as the 'Corruptions of Christianity.' Thus you cleanse the temple of 
truth as our Lord would have cleansed that of Jerusalem, if he had 
thrown down the tables of show-bread as well as the tables of the money 
changers, and if He had turned out the cherubim of glory as He did-the 
beasts which defiled that holy place. In short, you treat our Lord's 
divinity as the Jews treated His humanity when they numbered Him 
with felons, that the mob might cry- with a show of piety, ' Away with 
Him ! Crucify Him ! ' with the thieves, His accursed companions ! " 

On the mysterious and holy doctrine of the Trinity in 
unity, Fletcher writes : — 

" That there is a Supreme, Infinite, and Eternal Mind by which the 
world was made, is evident from the works of creation and providence. 
Ever} 7 leaf of the trees which cover a thousand hills, every spire of the 
grass which clothes a thousand vales, echoes, ' There is a God.' But 
the peculiar mode of His existence is far above our reach. Of this we 
only know what He plainly reveals to us, and what we may infer from 
what He hath plainly revealed ; for sooner shall the vilest insect find 
out the nature of man, than the brightest man shall of himself discover 
the nature of God. 

" It is agreed on all hands that the Supreme Being, compared with 
all other beings, is One, — one Creator over numberless creatures, one 
Infinite Being over myriads of finite beings, one Eternal Intelligence 
over millions of temporary intelligences. The distance between the 
things made and Him that made them being boundless, the living God 
must stand for ever far higher above all that lives, than the sun stands 
superior to all the beams it emits, and to all the tapers lighted at its fire. 
In this sense, true Christians are all Unitarians : God having plainly 



53 6 Wesley's Designated Successor. [1784. 



revealed His unity by the prophets, by the Apostles, and by our Lord 
Himself, there is no doubt about this point. And may the hand which 
writes these sheets wither a thousand times over rather than it should 
designedly write one word against this glorious and ever-adorable unity ! 

" But although the Supreme Being is One when He is compared to 
all created beings, shall we quarrel with Him when He informs us that 
notwithstanding he has no second in the universe of creatures, yet, in 
Himself, He exists in a wonderful manner, insomuch that His own 
eternal and perfect essence subsists, without division or separation, 
under three adorable distinctions, which are called sometimes 1 the 
Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost ; ' and sometimes ' the Father, 
the Word, and the Spirit ' ? ' Shall the thing formed say to Him that 
formed it, Why hast Thou made me thus ? ' or, Why dost Thou exist after 
such a manner ? " 

Fletcher then proceeds to describe the different opponents 
of his doctrine ; namely, — 

" Tritheists, who so unscripturally distinguish the Divine Persons 
as to divide and separate them into three deities ; and who, by this 
means, run into polytheism, or the belief of many gods. Ditheists, 
generally called Arians, who worship two gods, a great god and a little 
god ; the former uncreate, the latter created ; the former God by 
nature, and the latter only by courtesy. Deists, who so unscripturally 
maintain the unity of the Divine essence as to admit but one Divine 
subsistence;" and who include Jews, Mahometans, Infidels, and 
Socinians. 

Fletcher next undertakes to show and prove that God the 
Father has a proper Son, by whom He made the world ; 
that our Lord Jesus Christ claimed the divine honour of being 
this Son ; that He is the Redeemer and Saviour of lost man- 
kind ; that He is to be the final and universal Judge ; and 
that divine worship was paid to Him by patriarchs, prophets, 
and Apostles, and is His undoubted right. 

Fletcher's second pamphlet, entitled " Socinianism Un- 
scriptural," consists of eight letters, addressed to Dr. 
Priestley, in which he shows that Socinians err when they 
assert that the prophets always spoke of the Messiah as of a 
mere man like themselves. He proves that our first parents 
expected a Divine Messiah, and that the Divine Person who 
appeared to the patriarchs, and to Moses, was Jehovah, the 
Son, or Christ in His pre-existent state ; that the foundation 
of the proofs of Christ's divinity, in the writings of the 
prophets, is laid in the three original prophecies (Gen. iii. 1 5, 



Age 54.] 



Fletcher's Mil lenarianism . 



537 



xxii. 16, etc., and xlix. 8-10), recorded by Moses concerning 
the Messiah ; that all the prophets bear witness to His God- 
head, as do also the Evangelists and Apostles. 

This is a meagre outline of Fletcher's exceedingly able 
pamphlet, but nothing more can be here attempted. Two 
brief extracts, however, may be added, illustrative of his 
style : — 

" I have proved that the king of Israel who brought his people out of 
Egypt ^'as Christ, in His pre-existent nature. Moses was the prime 
minister of this great King ; Joshua, the general of His armies ; the 
tabernacle, His palace ; the mercy-seat, His throne ; the ark, His royal 
standard ; the priests, His officers ; the Levites, His guards ; and the 
shekinah, the visible display of His presence." 

" Read, dear Sir, the Scriptures without the veil of your system, and 
you will see that the Messiah, the wonderful Person whom you so con- 
stantly endeavour to degrade, was to be a mediating Prophet, like 
Moses ; an atoning Priest, like Aaron ; a pacific King, like Solomon ; 
a royal Prophet, like David ; a kingly Priest, like Melchisedec ; the 
Everlasting Father, as the Logos by whom all things were created ; and 
the Mighty God, as the proper Son of Him with whom He shares, in the 
unity of the Divine Spirit, the supreme title of 'Jehovah, Lord of hosts.' 

It has been already shown in a letter which Fletcher 
addressed to Wesley in 1755, the year of his conversion, 
that he was what is commonly called a Millenarian. Twenty- 
nine years had elapsed since then. During this long interval, 
no man had been a more diligent and devout student of the 
Holy Scriptures than himself, and yet his Millenarian belief 
remained unchanged. Hence the following remarkable pas- 
sage in his " Socinianism Unscriptural." After quoting and 
paraphrasing Isa. lxvi. 1 5-24, Fletcher proceeds to say : — 

" Here ends Isaiah's account of that glorious reign of Jehovah-Shiloh, 
which the fathers called the ' Millennium,' as being to last a thousand 
years, and during which it is probable our Lord will use these extraordi- 
nary means to keep all the nations in the way of obedience: — 1. A 
constant display of His goodness over all the earth, but particularly in 
and about Jerusalem, where the Lord will manifest His glory, and bless 
His happy subjects with new manifestations of His presence every 
Lord's day and every new moon. 2. A distinguishing interposition of 
Providence which will withhold the Messiah's wonted blessings from the 
disobedient (Zech. xiv. 17). 3. The constant endeavours of the saints, 
martyrs, patriarchs, prophets, and Apostles, raised from the dead and 
conversing with men, as Moses and Elijah did with our Lord's disciples 



538 



Wesley's Designated Successor. [1784- 



upon the mount, where they were indulged with a view of His glorified 
person, and of His 'kingdom come with power.' These glorified high 
priests and kings, as ministers and lieutenants of the Messiah, will rule 
all churches and states with unerring wisdom and unwarped fidelity. 
4. The care that the Lord Himself will take to set apart for the ministry, 
under His glorified saints, those who in every nation shall distinguish 
themselves by their virtue and piety. This seems to be the meaning of 
His own words : ' And when they shall come out of all nations to My 
holy mountain, I will take of them for priests and Levites, saith the 
Lord,' Isaiah lxvi. 20, 21. 5. A standing display of the ministration 
of condemnation, as appears from Isaiah lxvi. 24, and from other parallel 
Scriptures. 6. At the same time that the ministration of condemnation 
will powerfully work upon the fears of mankind to keep men in the way 
of duty, an occasional display of the ministration of righteous mercy will 
work upon their hopes. How will those hopes be fired when they shall 
' see the Lamb ' of God ' standing on the Mount Sion, and with Him ' 
His 'hundred and forty-four thousand ' worthies, 'having His Father's 
name/ Divine Majesty, Irresistible Power, Ineffable Love, and Bliss 
Inexpressible, 'written on their foreheads ! ' (Rev. xiv). But, 7. What 
will peculiarly tend to keep men from lapsing into rebellion against God 
will be the long life of the godly, and the untimely death of those who 
shall offer to tread the paths of iniquity. The godly shall attain to the 
years of antediluvian patriarchs, and the wicked shall not live out half 
their days ; they shall not live above a hundred years ; or, to speak 
after our manner, they shall die in their childhood. This seems to be 
Isaiah's meaning in Isaiah lxv. 17-25." 

Leaving it to others to advocate or to attack these inter- 
pretations of Scripture, the present writer will only add, that 
thus full of firm unwavering faith in the Divine majesty and 
glorious kingship of his Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, the 
devout and reverent Fletcher drew near to the mysterious 
spirit-world. 

In harmony with all this, Fletcher wrote to his friend, 
Mr. Henry Brooke, of Dublin, as follows : — 

" Madeley, Afiril 27, 1784. 

"My Dear Brother, — Mercy, peace, and perfect love attend you, 
and your dear partner, and the dear friends who live under your roof ; 
and with whom I beg you may abide under the cross, till, with John, 
Mary, and Salome, you all can say, ' We are crucified with Him, and 
the life we now live, we live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved 
us, and gave Himself for us.' 

" With respect to the glory of the Lord, it is at hand; whatever false 
wisdom and unbelief may whisper to our hearts. It can be no farther 
off than the presence of Him, who fills all in all. 

" With respect to what you say of the kingdom not coming with the 



Age 54.] Unpublished Letter to Mrs. Smyth. 



539 



outward pomp, which is observable by the men of the world, it is strictly 
true; but that there is an inward display of power and glory under 
Pentecostal Christianity is undeniable, both from our Lord's promises 
to His imperfect disciples, and from their experiences after the kingdom 
of God was come to them with power. To wait in deep resignation, and 
with a constant attention to what the Lord will please to do or say 
concerning us and His Church ; and to leave to Him the times and 
seasons, is what I am chiefly called to do ; taking care to avoid falling 
into either speculation careless of action, or into the activity which is 
devoid of spirituality. I would not have a lamp without oil ; and I 
could not have oil without a lamp, and a vessel to hold it in for myself, 
and to communicate it to others. 

" Fare you all well in Christ ! So prays 

" John Fletcher." 1 

On the day that Fletcher penned the foregoing, his wife 
wrote as follows to Mrs. Smyth, their hostess in Dublin. 
The letter, however, was signed, " John and Mary Fletcher," 
and has not before been published. It furnishes a glimpse 
of the Madeley Methodists :— 

"April 27, 1784. 

' ' My Very Dear Madam, —If anything I said in my last was attended 
with a blessing, I give glory to my adorable Father. I am ready to 
wonder that He ever works by so poor a worm. 

"I wish you had been with us yesterday morning, in our upper chamber, 
to hear the simple tales of our dear women. Do you remember a little 
woman, who sat in the window of the room when you met the class, and 
who expressed great desire for more of the life of God ? It was she who 
lived on horse-beans so many weeks, while suckling twins, for fear of 
running into debt for bread. She has, since then, been greatly exercised 
by poverty, temptation, and illness ; but, in all, her desire for the pure 
image of God seemed to rise above every other wish ; and, about a fort- 
night ago, the Lord poured out upon her such an abundance of His 
"Spirit, that nature almost sank beneath it. She told us yesterday, that 
every moment she seems to be so surrounded with God, and so penetrated 
with His love, that, said she, ' I cannot help, many times in the day, 
stopping in the midst of my work, when alone, to shout aloud, Glory ! 
Glory ! Glory ! My very heart is glad. Yes, my heart is so glad, I 
could shout from morning till night ; but, oh ! I can think of no words 
to tell what I see and feel of Jesus. I can choose nothing : I know no 
will — no choice : the will of God is my all.' Had you heard her speak, 
and also two others who have just found the Lord, you would have wept 
tears of love and joy. 



1 " Thirteen Original Letters of the Rev. John Fletcher." Bath, 1791, 
p. 36. 



54o 



Wesley's Designated Successor. 



[1784. 



" Our love to Dr. Coke ; and thank him for his two letters, which we 
have received. 

" Begging our tender regards to all our dear Christian friends, we 
remain, with kindest remembrance and grateful acknowledgment to our 
dear Mr. and Mrs. Smyth, their sincere though unworthy friends, 

" John and Mary Fletcher." 

The next is a letter which, I believe, has not before been 
published. It was addressed to a sister of Lady Mary 
Fitzgerald, and is full of faith in Christ : — 

" Christ Jesus is alone the desirable, the everlasting distinction and 
honour of men. All other advantages are like the down on the thistle, 
blown away in a moment. Riches are incapable of satisfying ; friends 
are changeable ; dear relations are taken away with a stroke ; but, 
amid all the changes of life, Christ is a Rock. To see Him by faith, to 
lay hold on Him, to rely on Him, to live upon Him, this — this is the 
refuge from the storm, the shadow from the heat. 

" In order that you may obtain it, nothing more or less is required, 
on your part, than a full-and frequent confession of your own abominable 
heart ; and kneeling, as a true beggar, at the door of mercy, declaring 
you come there only expecting notice and relief because God our Saviour 
came to redeem incarnate devils and to convert them into saints. 

" I think you take a sure method to perplex yourself if you look at 
yourself for proof of faith. Others must see it in your works ; but you 
must feel it in your heart. The glory of Jesus is, by faith, realized to 
the mind in some such manner as an infinitely grand and beauteous 
object in the firmament of heaven arrests the spectator on itself. It 
captivates him ; and, by the pleasure it imparts, he is led on to view it. 
So it is with Jesus, our peace, strength, righteousness, salvation. 

" For my own part, I am often tempted to suspect whether I am not 
speaking great swelling words of Christ, and yet am myself nothing 
more than sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal ; and I find that the 
only successful way of answering this doubt is an immediate address to 
Jesus Christ, and prayer to Him, to this effect: 'Whosoever cometh 
unto Thee, Thou wilt in no wise cast out. Lord, have I not come unto 
Thee ? Am I not depending on Thee for life, as a brand plucked out 
of the fire ? See if there be any way of wickedness in me, and lead me 
in the way everlasting ! ' 

" My eyes look to the blessed Jesus ; my heart longs to be more in 
His service ; I mourn my corruptions ; they are many and great. When 
I look at Him, and contemplate His finished salvation, I admire, I adore, 
in some measure I love. When I look at myself, my heart rises at the 
sight, — black and selfish, proud and carnal, covetous and unclean. I 
want all things that are good ; but, oh ! I have a blessed Lord Christ, 
in whom all fulness dwells for me, and for my dear friend to whom I am 
writing, — a fulness of pardon, wisdom, holiness, strength, peace, salva- 
tion, righteousness, — a fulness of mercy, goodness, truth, — all this, and 



Age 54.] Fletcher at Wesley's Conference in 1784. 541 



ten thousand times more, without condition, without qualification, without 
workings, without servings, only for receiving. O blessed free grace of 
God ! What a gift ! And for whom ? My dear friend, for you. What 
says the everlasting God? ' Believe He gave His Son for sinners.' Can 
God lie ? Impossible ! Can we have a better foundation to build upon 
than the promise and the oath of God ? 

" My very dear friend, I know you will not be angry at my preach- 
ment. I aim all I say at my own heart. I stand more in need of it 
than you ; and I always feel my heart refreshed when I am talking or 
thinking of the blessed Jesus. But oh ! how little I know of Him ! 

Thou light of the world, enlighten me ! Teach me to know more of 
Thy infinite, unsearchable riches, that I may love Thee with an increas- 
ing love, and serve Thee with an increasing zeal till Thou bring me to 
glory!" 

Gratitude was one of Fletcher's characteristics. Hence, 
when the son of his dead friend, Mr. Charles Greenwood, of 
Stoke Newington, visited him at Madeley, he wrote to the 
loving widow : — 

"Madeley, June 20, 1784. The sight of Mr. Greenwood, in his son, 
has brought some of my Newington scenes to my remembrance, and 

1 beg leave to convey my tribute of thanks by his hands. Thanks ! 
Thanks ! What, nothing but words ? There is my humbling case. 
I wish to requite your manifold kindnesses, but I cannot. I must be 
satisfied to be ever your insolvent debtor. Nature and grace do not love 
it. Proud nature lies uneasy under great obligations ; and thankful 
grace would be glad to put something in the scale opposite to that 
which you have filled with so many favours. But what shall I put ? 
I wish I could send you all the Bank of England, and all the Gospel of 
Christ ; but the first is not mine, and the second is already yoitrs"} 

Wesley's annual Conference, in 1784, was held at Leeds. 
He writes, in his Journal : — 

" 1784, Tuesday, July 27. Our Conference began ; at which four of 
our brethren, after long debate (in which Mr. Fletcher 2 took much 
pains), acknowledged their fault, and all that was past was forgotten. 
Thursday, July 29, being the public Thanksgiving Day, as there was 
not room for us in the old church, I read prayers, as well as preached, 
at our Room. I admired the whole service for the day. The prayers, 
Scriptures, and every part of it, pointed at one thing : ' Beloved, if God 
so loved us, we ought also to love one another.' Having five clergymen 



1 Letters, 1791, p. 300. 

2 Before attending the Conference, Fletcher visited Miss Ritchie, 
who wrote: " 1784, July 16. Mr. and Mrs. Fletcher visited Otley. I 
was truly blessed and edified by their society. Our house was full of 
company." (" Memoir of Mrs. Mortimer," by Agnes Bulmer, p. 97.) 



542 



Wesley' s Designated Successor. [1784. 



to assist me, we administered the Lord's Supper, as was supposed, to 
sixteen or seventeen hundred persons. Sunday, August 1. We were 
fifteen clergymen at the old church. Tuesday, August 3. Our Con- 
ference concluded in much love, to the great disappointment of all." 

Such is Wesley's brief account of one of the most im- 
portant Conferences he ever held, and the last which Fletcher 
had the opportunity of attending. During the year, Dr. Coke 
had begun the Methodist Foreign Missionary Society ; and 
Wesley had signed and sealed his famous " Deed of Decla- 
ration," constituting, for all time to come, the Legal Con- 
ference of the Methodists, and defining the powers and duties 
of its members. Charles Atmore, who was present, relates, 1 
that, on the Sunday evening before the Conference opened, 
the congregation, assembled to hear W T esley, was four times 
greater than the chapel could contain, and, therefore, Wesley 
" preached in a field adjoining, on the judgment of the great 
day." On Monday morning, Fletcher " preached an excellent 
sermon from Matt. v. 13 — 16, 'Ye are the salt of the earth," 1 
etc. At night, Wesley took for his text, " Give the king Thy 
judgments, O God, and Thy righteousness unto the king's 
son." On Tuesday morning, at five o'clock, Henry Moore 
delivered a sermon founded upon " Casting all your care 
upon Him ; for He careth for you." At the conclusion of 
the service, Wesley " opened the Conference;" and, in the 
evening of the day, preached from, " Even the very hairs of 
your head are all numbered," etc. Next morning, July 28, 
at five o'clock, the text of Thomas Taylor was, " What 
then ? notwithstanding, every way, whether in pretence, or 
in truth, Christ is preached ; and I therein do rejoice, yea, 
and will rejoice." At night, Wesley preached from, "Thou 
shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all 
thy soul, and with all thy mind." Thursday, July 29, "was 
a high day indeed." At five a.m. Thomas Hanby discoursed 
on " My grace is sufficient for thee," etc. In the forenoon, 
Wesley expounded and enforced 1 Cor. xiii. 1 — 4, "Though 
I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have 
not charity," etc. Then followed the sacramental service, in 
which Wesley was assisted by Fletcher, Coke, Cornelius 



1 Wesley an Methodist Magazine, 1845, p. 12. 



Age 54.] Fletcher at Wesley's Conference in 1784. 543 



Bayley, who had been Fletcher's curate, Mr. Dillon, an 
ordained clergyman from Ireland, and the well-known David 
Simpson, of Macclesfield, the services of the day being con- 
cluded with another sermon from Wesley, on the text, " This 
is the first and great commandment." At five a.m. on Friday, 
July 30, Joseph Pilmoor preached from " I have set the 
Lord always before me ; because he is at my right hand, 
I shall not be moved ; and, at night, Fletcher, from, " These 
all- having obtained a good report through faith, received not 
the promise : God having provided some better thing for us, 
that they without us should not be made perfect." 1 At 
seven o'clock on Sunday morning, August 1, Fletcher 
preached again, taking as his text I Kings xiii. 26, selected 
from the first lesson for the day : " It is the man of God, 
who was disobedient unto the word of the Lord : therefore 
the Lord hath delivered him unto the lion, which hath torn 
him, and slain him, according to the word of the Lord, 
which he spake unto him." Joseph Benson, who was present, 
writes : — 

" Mr. Fletcher drew such a picture of the degradation and misery of 
a backsliding minister, and of the corruption and injury he introduced 
into the Church of Christ, as produced a general and deep sensation, 
not easily to be forgotten." 

And Henry Moore, another of Fletcher's auditors, re- 
marks : — 

" I was extremely impressed with the whole service : the shadow of 
the Divine presence was seen among us, and His going forth was in 
our sanctuary." 

Next morning, Mr. Moore himself had to preach. He 
writes : — 

" I went to the chapel at the hour appointed, and, to my dismay, found 
the venerable Mr. Fletcher in the pulpit, leaning upon his staff. My 
first impression was to run away; but a moment's reflection changed 



1 Respecting this sermon, John Beaumont, father of the celebrated 
Rev. Dr. Joseph Beaumont, wrote: "Mr. Fletcher dwelt much on the 
context, which speaks of the faith and works of the ancient worthies, 
and strongly enforced what he termed a working faith. I was blessed 
beyond description, and thought him certainly the most angelic man 
I had ever heard." ("The Experience and Travels of John Beaumont.") 



544 



Wesley* s Designated Successor. ■ [1784. 



my purpose. I ascended the pulpit and gave out the hymn ; while I 
did so, my knees smote one against the other : I knelt down to pray, 
and indeed lifted my heart with my voice, that I might be endued with 
power and wisdom from on high : my soul was calmed, and I took my 
text, and continued the service, fully set free from fear, and strengthened 
in my resolution ever to obey the voice of duty." 1 

At five o'clock on the following morning, Wesley, eighty- 
one years of age, again preached, selecting a text admirably 
adapted to be a sequel to that chosen by Fletcher on the 
previous Sunday ; and also peculiarly suited to what had taken 
place in the Conference : " And Jeremiah said unto the house 
of the Rechabites, Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God 
of Israel : Because ye have obeyed the commandment of 
Jonadab your father, and kept all his precepts, and done 
according unto all that he hath commanded you ; therefore, 
thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel ; Jonadab 
the son of Rechab shall not want a man to stand before me 
for ever" (Jer. xxxv. 18, 19). The Conference was con- 
cluded on Tuesday, August 3 ; and next morning, at five 
o'clock, Wesley delivered another sermon, and immediately 
afterwards took the coach for W T ales. His last text, at this 
remarkable Conference, was, " Take heed unto thyself, and 
unto the doctrine ; continue in them : for in doing this thou 
shalt both save thyself, and them that hear thee." 2 

A purpose is intended to be served by these minute 
statements, namely, to convey an idea of what Methodist 
Conferences were in the olden times, and to indicate the 
chief preachers, and the kind of texts they took. 

It is a well-known fact that the great event of the Con- 
ference of 1784 was the rebellion raised in Wesley's camp 
of preachers. In his " Deed of Declaration," he had ap- 
pointed his brother Charles, Dr. Coke, James Creighton, and 
ninety-seven of his itinerants to be, after his decease, his 
legalized successors, and to exercise the powers he had exer- 
cised from the beginning. By confining the number of the 
members of the legal Conference to a hundred, he necessarily 
excluded not fewer than ninety-two, whom he had employed 



1 "Life of Henry Moore," by Mrs. Smith, p. 321. 

2 Wesley an Methodist Magazine, 1845, p. 14. 



Age 54.] Fletcher at Wesley's Conference in 1784. 545 



in circuit work ; and, among these, there were several who 
had claims quite equal to many of the elected ones, as, to 
wit, Thomas Lee, John Atlay, John Pritchard, John Pool, 
John Hampson, sen., John Hampson, jun., William Eells, 
and Joseph Pillmoor. Previous to the Conference being 
held, certain of the non-elected preachers published a protest 
against Wesley's partiality. The crisis was a serious one. 
Fletcher was not included in the hundred, probably because 
he desired to be left out ; but he was intensely anxious 
respecting apprehended results. Mrs. Fletcher wrote : — 

" O how deeply was he affected for the welfare of his brethren, when 
we were at Leeds, in the year 1784! When disputes arose among them, 
his soul groaned beneath the burden. By two or three o'clock in the 
morning, I was sure to hear him breathing out prayers for the peace 
and prosperity of Sion ; and when I said to him, I was afraid this would 
hurt his health, and that I wished him to sleep more, he would answer? 
' O Polly, the cause of God lies near my heart.' " 

At the opening of the Conference, on July 27, Wesley 
mentioned the "Deed of Declaration," and the "Appeal" 
which had been published against it : — 

" He showed that, from the commencement of Methodism, the annual 
Conferences had always consisted of persons whom he had desired to 
meet for the purpose of conferring with him. He insisted, ths t he had 
a right to name the members of the Legal Conference, and to fix thei r 
number. The 'Appeal,'" he said, "represented him as unjust, oppres- 
sive, and tyrannical, which he was not ; the authors of it had betrayed 
him ; and, by doing so, had hurt the minds of many, and kindled a 
flame throughout the kingdom. Hence, he required that they should 
acknowledge their fault, and be sorry for it, or he could have no further 
connection with them." 1 

For seven days, the dispute remained unsettled. Fletcher 
acted as mediator. 

"Never," says Charles Atmore, "shall I forget the ardour and earnest- 
ness with which Mr. Fletcher expostulated, even on his knees, both with 
Mr. Wesley and the preachers. To the former, he said, ' My father ! 
my father ! they have offended, but they are your children ! ' To the 
atter, he exclaimed, ' My brethren ! my brethren ! he is your father ! ' 



1 Benson's " Life," by Macdonald, p. 160. 

35 



546 



Wesley' 's Designated Successor. 



[1784. 



and then, portraying the work in which they were unitedly engaged, he 
fell again on his knees, and with fervour and devotion engaged in 
prayer. The Conference was bathed in tears ; many sobbed aloud." 1 

This appears to have been on the last day but one that 
the Conference sat. Hence Joseph Benson writes : — 

" August 2. Our brethren, who had been concerned in the ' Appeal,' 
rejoiced our hearts, by acknowledging their fault, and making submis- 
sion. In consequence of their doing so, they were admitted among their 
brethren, and appointed to Circuits." 2 

It may be added, that, the principal appellants — John 
Hampson, sen., and John Hampson, jun., Joseph Pillmoor, 
John Atlay, and William Eels — soon afterwards left the 
Connexion. 

Two other incidents, concerning the Conference, must be 
mentioned. 

It is a well-known fact, that, one of the most important 
questions asked at Wesley's Conferences was, " Are there 
any objections to any of our preachers ?" Upon the question 
being put, the names of all (Wesley's name included), were 
read seriatim. When this part of the business of the Con- 
ference, in 1784, was reached, Fletcher rose from his seat, 
to withdraw from the chapel. 

" He was eagerly recalled, and asked why he would leave them ? 
' Because,' said he, ' it is improper, and painful to my feelings, for me 
to hear the minute failings of my brethren canvassed, unless my own 
character be submitted to the same scrutiny.' They promised, if he 
would stay, that his character should be investigated. On these terms, 
he consented to remain ; and, when his name was read, an aged preacher 
rose, bowed to him, and said, ' I have but one thing to object to Mr. 
Fletcher; God has given him a richer talent than his humility will surfer 
him duly to appreciate. In confining himself to Madeley, he puts his 
light, comparatively, under a bushel ; whereas, if he would come out 
more among us, he would draw immense congregations, and would do 
much more good.' In answer to this, Mr. Fletcher stated the tender 
and sacred ties which bound him to his parish ; its numerous popu- 
lation ; the daily calls for his services ; the difficulty of finding a proper 
substitute ; his increasing infirmities, which disqualified him for horse 
exercise ; his unwillingness to leave Mrs. Fletcher at home ; and the 
expense of travelling in carriages. In reply to his last argument, another 



1 Wesley an Methodist Magazine, 1845, p. 15. 

2 Benson's " Life," by Macdonald, p. 160. 



Age 54-] Fletcher at Wesley's Conference in 1784. 547 



preacher arose, and observed that the expense of his journeys would be 
cheerfully paid ; and that, though he knew and highly approved Mr. 
Fletcher's disinterestedness and delicacy in pecuniary transactions, yet 
he feared there was a mixture of pride in his objection ; for that by no 
importunity could he be prevailed on to accept a present to defray his 
expenses on his late visit to Ireland. 'A little explanation,' replied 
Mr. Fletcher, 1 will set that matter right. When I was invited to visit 
my friends at Dublin, I had every desire to accept their invitation ; but 
I wanted money for the journey, and knew not how to obtain it. In this 
situation, I laid the matter before the Lord, humbly requesting that, if 
the journey were a providential opening to do good, I might have the 
means of performing it. Shortly afterwards, I received an unexpected 
sum of money, and took my journey. While in Dublin, I heard our 
friends commiserating the distresses of the poor, and lamenting the 
inadequate means they had to relieve them. When, therefore, they 
offered me a handsome present, what could I do ? The necessary 
expenses of my journey had already been supplied ; my general income 
was quite sufficient ; I needed nothing. Had I received the money, I 
should have given it away. The poor of Dublin most needed, and were 
most worthy of, the money of their generous countrymen. How then 
could I hesitate to beg that it might be applied to their relief ? You 
see, brethren, I could not in conscience do otherwise than I did.' " ! 

After these explanations, the honest old Methodist preachers, 
of course, recorded no objection to the " character" of John 
Fletcher ; but Wesley, nearly a year afterwards, wrote to his 
brother Charles : — 

" 1785, June 2. About once a quarter, I hear from Mr. and Mrs. 
Fletcher. I grudge his sitting still ; but who can help it ? I love ease 
as well as he does ; but I dare not take it while I believe there is another 
world." 2 

Fletcher's examination, on this occasion, took place by 
special arrangement : if he had lived, perhaps, it would after- 
wards have been a matter of course ; for, about the middle 
of the Conference, he rose, and, addressing Wesley, said : — 

" I fear my successor will not be interested in the work of God, and 
my flock may suffer. I have done what I could. I have built a chapel 
in Madeley Wood, and I hope, Sir, you will continue to supply it, and 
that Madeley may still be part of a Methodist Circuit. If you please, I 
should be glad to be put down in the ' Minutes ' as a supernumerary." 



1 Benson's "Life of Fletcher." 

2 Wesley's Works, vol. xii., p. 142. 



548 



Wesley s Designated Successor. 



[1784. 



Wesley was not easily moved, but even he could hardly 
bear this, and the preachers burst into tears. 1 

The other incident, to be mentioned, was of a different 
kind, and is a good illustration of the remarkable allegorical 
talent which Fletcher possessed, and often exercised, not only 
in his published works, but in his correspondence, and in 
conversation among his friends. 

On March 31, 1784, Wesley visited Burslem, where Mr. 
Enoch Wood resided, a Methodist, and an artist of great 
ability. Mr. Wood prevailed on Wesley to permit him to 
model a bust from his person ; and a considerable number 
of copies were executed. The likeness was so striking, that, 
when Wesley looked at the bust, he said to Mr. Wood, " If 
you touch it again, you will mar it." Every wrinkle, dimple, 
and vein of the face and forehead were marked with perfect 
accuracy. Four months afterwards, Mr. Wood went to the 
Conference at Leeds, and soon became one of the most 
popular men there. Samuel Bardsley hoisted the artist on 
his shoulder ; at the moment, Fletcher was passing through 
the grave-yard, and was told, by the applauding preachers, 
the name of the hero, so ludicrously exhibited. Fletcher 
paused a moment, and then said, " Are you the young man 
who made that beautiful likeness of Mr. Wesley ?" Being 
answered in the affirmative, and having been made acquainted 
with the whole process of making the bust, he stood on a 
grave, and, putting his hand on the artist's shoulder, he began 
to spiritualize what he had heard, by using it to illustrate 
the work of God, in the new creation of the human soul, by 
the power of the Holy Ghost. He spoke of the rough and 
unpromising materials, — the corrupt nature derived from 
fallen Adam ; he showed how this, by the energy of the Holy 
Spirit, is softened and melted down into godly sorrow ; how 
it becomes plastic in the hands of the Divine Artist ; how it 
is cast into a new mould : and how it is formed after the 
likeness of Christ. His extemporaneous address lasted twenty 
minutes, and was never forgotten by those who heard it. 2 
It may be added that, some years afterwards, Dr. Adam 



1 Mrs. Fletcher's " Life," by H. Moore, p. 183. 

2 Christian Miscellany, 1848, p. 230. 



Age 55-] Fletcher in his " Se?itry-Box." 



549 



Clarke obtained from Mr. Wood the loan of the original 
mould, and had a bust cast in solid brass, which is now in 
the possession of Mr. G. J. Stevenson. This was lent to the 
sculptor who chiselled the marble effigy of Wesley, now 
placed in the entrance-hall of the Wesleyan Theological 
Institution, Richmond. The face and head of the effigy 
were obtained from it. 1 

On his return to Madeley, Fletcher wrote to his friend, 
Mr. Ireland, as follows : — 

"Madeley, September 13, 1784. 

"My Dear Friend, — I keep in my sentry-box till Providence 
removes me. My situation is quite suited to my little strength. I may 
do as much or as little as I please, according- to my weakness ; and I 
have an advantage, which I can have nowhere else in such a degree, — 
my little field of action is just at my own door, so that if I happen to 
overdo myself, I have but to step from my pulpit to my bed, and from 
my bed to my grave. If I had a body full of vigour, and a purse full of 
money, I should like well enough to travel about as Mr. Wesley does ; 
but as Providence does not call me to it, I readily submit. The snail 
does best in its shell ; were it to aim at galloping, like the racehorse, 
it would be ridiculous indeed. My wife is quite of my mind with respect 
to the call we have to a sedentary life. We are two poor invalids, who 
between us make half 'a labourer. 

"We shall have tea cheap and light very dear; 2 I don't admire the 
change. Twenty thousand chambers walled up, and filled with foul air, 
are converted into so many dungeons for the industrious artizan, who, 
being compelled by this murderous tax, denies himself the benefit of 
light and air. Blessed be God ! the light of heaven and the air of the 
spiritual world are still free. 

" My dear partner sweetly helps me to drink the dregs of life, and to 
carry with ease the daily cross. We are not long for this world — we 
see it, we feel it ; and, by looking at death and his conqueror, we fight 
beforehand our last battle with that last enemy whom our dear Lord 
has overcome for us. That we may triumph over him with an humble, 
Christian courage is the prayer of, my dear friend, yours, 

" John Fletcher." 3 

Fletcher's apprehension of the nearness of death, so far as 
he was concerned, was realized; but his wife did not die until 



1 Stevenson's "Memorials of the Wesley Family," p. 349. 

2 On June 21, Pitt moved several resolutions to put an end to smug- 
gling by reducing the duty upon tea from 50 to \2\ per cent. ; and to 
increase the window tax in proportion. These resolutions were passed, 
though not without much debate. 

3 Letters, 1791, p. 302. 



550 



Wesley* s Designated Successor. 



[1784. 



thirty-one years after this, not a year of which passed with- 
out her keeping the anniversary of their wedding-day. In 
the present year she wrote : — 

" 1784, November 12. We have been married three years this day. 
A good day it has been to me ! While reflecting on the wonderful 
' goodness of God in my providential union with my clear husband (so 
far, so very far, beyond my warmest wishes), my heart was enlarged 
with desire to render to my God a suitable return for all His mercies ! " 1 

On her birthday, two months previously, she had written 
in her journal : — 

"September 12. This day I am forty-five years old. I have had 
such a sense of the goodness of God toward me as I cannot express. I 
am filled with favours. I have the best of husbands, who daily grows 
more and more spiritual, and I think more healthful, being far better 
than when we first married. My call also is so clear, and. I have such 
liberty in the work, and such sweet encouragement among the people. 
My servant, too, is much improved, and as faithful as if she were my own 
child. An income quite comfortable, and a good deal to help the poor 
with ! O what shall I render to the Lord for all the mercies He hath 
shown unto me ! " 

In this happy home, Fletcher wrote the following happy 
letter to a youth, his godson, by name John Fennel : — 

" Madeley, November 28, 1784. 

" DEAR John, — I rejoice to hear that you think of a better world; 
and of that better part which Mary, and your mother — another Mary- 
chose before you. May all her pra}^ers, and, above all, may the dew of 
heaven, come down upon your soul in solemn thoughts, heavenly desires, 
and strong resolutions to be the Lord's, cost what it will. Let the 
language of your heart and lips be, ' I will be a follower of Christ, a 
child of God, an inheritor of the kingdom of heaven.' A noble promise 
this ! of which I have so peculiar a right to put you in mind. In order 
to be this happy and holy soul, you must not forget that your Christian 
name, your Christian vow, and ten thousand reasons beside, bind you 
to turn your back upon the world, the flesh, and the devil ; and to set 
yourself to look steadfastly to the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, your 
Creator, Redeemer, and Sanctifier. 

" Dear John, you have no time to lose. We have calls here to the 
young without end. I lately buried, in our churchyard, two brothers 
and sisters in the same grave. Be you also ready ! I was praying for 
you some nights ago on my bed, in my sleepless hours ; and I asked 
for you the faith of righteous Abel, the chastity of Joseph, the early 



1 " Mrs. Fletcher's Life," by H. Moore, p. 158. 



Age 55.] Rev, Charles Simeon visits Fletcher. 



551 



piety of Samuel, the right choice of young Solomon, the self-denial and 
abstinence of Daniel, together with the early zeal and undaunted courage 
of his three friends ; but, above all, I asked that you might follow John 
the Baptist and John the Apostle as they followed our Lord. Back, 
earnestly back my prayers. So shall you be faithful, diligent, godly ; 
a blessing to all around you, and a comfort to your affectionate old 
friend and minister, 

"John Fletcher." 1 

At this period, the Rev. Charles Simeon, a young man of 
twenty-five, and full of faith and zeal, was rising into great 
popularity among the Methodist clergymen of the day. He 
was an intimate friend of Berridge and of Henry Venn; 
and had recently visited Riland at Birmingham, Cadogan 
at Reading, Pentycross at Wallingford, and Robinson at 
Leicester; 2 and now, toward the end of 1784, he came to 
Fletcher at Madeley. As soon as he entered the vicarage, 
Fletcher took him by the hand and brought him into the 
parlour, where the two engaged in prayer. That being 
ended, Fletcher asked Simeon to preach in the church. 
After some hesitation, Simeon consented ; and away went 
Fletcher, bell in hand, through the village, and, ringing as 
loudly as he could, told the people they must attend church, 
for a young clergyman from Cambridge had come to preach, 
to them. 

After the service in the church, Fletcher and his visitor 
went for a walk, in the course of which they entered the 
ironworks. Simeon was surprised at the aptitude of Fletcher 
to turn everything he saw to spiritual profit. To one of the 
ironworkers, hammering on an anvil, he remarked, " O, pray T 
to God that He may hammer that hard heart of yours." To 
another, who was heating a bar of iron, "Ah ! thus it is that 
God tries His children in the furnace of affliction/' And to 
a third, who was drawing a furnace, " See, Thomas ! if you 
can make such a furnace as that, think what a furnace God 
can make for sinners." 3 

Soon after this, Wesley wrote : — 

" 1784, Monday, December 20. I went to Hinxworth, where I had 



1 The Youth's Instncctor, 1835, p. 305. 

2 "Simeon's Memoirs," by W. Cams, M.A. 

3 Christian Miscella?ty, 1848, p. 326. 



552 



Wesley's Designated Successor. 



[1785. 



the satisfaction of meeting Mr. Simeon, Fellow of King's College in 
Cambridge. He has spent some time with Mr. Fletcher, at Madeley: 
two kindred souls ; much resembling each other both in fervour of 
spirit and in the earnestness of their address. He gave me the pleasing 
information that there are three parishes in Cambridge wherein true 
Scriptural religion is preached, and several young gentlemen who are 
happy partakers of it." 1 

Fletcher, the Madeley revivalist, was closing his last year 
on earth ; Simeon, the Cambridge one, lived and laboured 
for more than half a century afterwards ; and who can say 
that in Simeon's life and labours the influence of Fletcher's 
spirit and example was not an element ? 

A few more extracts from Fletcher's letters, and then the 
end will come. Already he seemed to be waiting to " gather 
up his feet," and die. In a letter to Mrs. Thornton, a friend 
of the Greenwood family, at Stoke Newington, he wrote : — 

il Madeley, January 21, 1785. I make just shift to fill up my little 
sentry box, by the help of my dear partner. Had we more strength, 
we should have opportunity enough to exert it. O that we were but 
truly faithful in our little place ! Your great stage of London is too 
high for people of little ability and little strength ; and, therefore, we 
are afraid of venturing upon it. We should be glad to rise high in 
usefulness ; but God, who needs us not, calls us to sink in deep resig- 
nation and humility. His will be done ! " 2 

Three weeks later, he wrote to the Right Hon. Lady- 
Mary Fitzgerald, as follows : — 

" Madeley, February 11, 1785. Who are we, my lady, that we shouid 
not be swallowed up by the holy, loving, living Spirit, who fills heaven 
and earth ? Whether we consider it or not, there He is, a true, holy, 
loving, merciful God. Assent to it, my lady, believe it ; rejoice in it. 
Let Him be God, all in all ; your God in Christ Jesus. What an 
ocean of love to swim in — to dive into ! " 3 

From Fletcher's letter to Wesley in 1755, and his " Soci- 
nianism Unscriptural," written during the last years of his 
life, it is undeniably evident that Fletcher was a Millenarian. 
The following letter, to Mr. Henry Brooke, of Dublin, refers 



1 Wesley's Journal. 

2 Letters, 1791, p. 303. 

3 Ibid, p. 304. 



Age 55.] 



Modified Millenarianism. 



553 



to the same subject, but shows that he was not so confident 
with respect to some of his views as he had been heretofore — 

"Madeley, February 28, 1785. 1 
"My Dear Brother, — We are all shadows. Your mortal parent 
has passed away ; and we must pass away after him. A lesson I learn 
daily, is to see things and persons in their invisible root, and in their 
eternal fir inci file ; where they are not subject to change, decay, and 
death ; but where they blossom and shine in the primaeval excellence 
allotted them by their gracious Creator. By this means, I learn to 
walk by faith, and not by sight. Tracing His image, in all the foot- 
steps of nature, and finding out that which is of God in ourselves, is the 
true wisdom, genuine godliness. I hope you will never be afraid, nor 
ashamed of it. I see no danger in these studies and meditations, pro- 
vided we still keep the end in view — the all of God, and the shadowy 
nothingness of all that is visible. 

" With respect to the great Pentecostal display of the Spirit's glory, 
I still look for it within and without ; and to look for it aright is the 
lesson I am learning: I am now led to be afraid of that in my nature, 
which would be for pomp, show, and visible glory. I am afraid of 
falling, by such an expectation, into what I call a spiritual Judaizing ; 
into a looking for Christ's coming in my own pompous conceit, which 
might make me reject Him, if His wisdom, to crucify mine, chose to 
come in a meaner way : if, instead of coming in His Father's glory, He 
chose to come meek, riding, not on the cherubim, but on the foal of an 
ass. Our Saviour said, with respect to His going to the feast, ' My time 
is not yet come : ' whether His time to come and turn the thieves and 
buyers out of the outward church is yet come, I know not. I doubt 
Jerusalem, and the holy place, are yet given to be trodden under foot 
by the Gentiles. But my Jerusalem ! why it is not swallowed up of 
that which comes down from heaven, is a question which I wait to be 
solved by the teaching of the great Prophet, who is alone possessed of 
Urim and Thummim. The mighty power to wrestle with Him is all 
divine : and I often pray, — 

" ' That mighty faith on me bestow, 
Which cannot ask in vain, 
Which holds and will not let Thee go, 
Till I my suit obtain : 

" ' Till Thou into my soul inspire 
That perfect love unknown, 
And tell my infinite desire, 
Whate'er Thou wilt be done.' 



1 In an unpublished letter, dated, "Sunday Evening, February 27, 
1785," and signed "John and Mary Fletcher," but evidently written by 
the latter, it is said : — " My dear Mr. Fletcher has had a bad cold ; but 
is better. He is all alive, and living for eternity." 



554 



Wesley* s Designated Successor. 



[1785. 



"In short, the Lord crucifies my wisdom and my will ever} 7 way ; 
but I must be crucified as the thieves. All my bones must be broken ; 
for there is still in me that impatience of wisdom, which would stir, 
when the tempter says, ' Come down from the cross.' It is not for us 
to know the times and seasons, the manner and mystical means of God's 
working ; but only to hunger and thirst, and lie passive before the great 
Potter. I begin to be content to be a vessel of clay or of wood, so that 
I may be emptied of self, and filled with my God, my all. 

"I am exceeding glad that your dear partner goes on simply and 
believingly. Such a companion is a great blessing ; for when two shall 
agree touching one thing in prayer, it shall be done. My wife and I 
endeavour to fathom the meaning of that deep promise. Join us, and 
let us search after that which exceeds knowledge — I mean the wisdom, 
and the power, the love, and the faithfulness of God. 

"Adieu! Be God's, as the French say, and see God is yours in 
Christ, for you, 1 for brothers Dugdale, Shannon, Pickering, Mrs. Blash- 
ford, etc. 

"We are your obliged friends, 

"John and Mary Fletcher." 2 

It must be confessed that there is a little mysticism in 
Fletcher's letter ; but let it pass. The next was written a 
month later. The Rev. Peard Dickenson was now in the 
twenty-sixth year of his age. He had been ordained a 
deacon, on June 16, 1783, and, a few months afterwards, had 
been ordained a priest by the Archbishop of Canterbury. He 
was now the Curate of the venerable Vicar of Shoreham, the 
Rev. Vincent Perronet, and wrote to Fletcher, asking his 
advice respecting pastoral visitation. Fletcher replied, as 
follows : — 

"Madeley, March 29, 1785. 

" Dear Sir, — I did not answer your obliging letter, because I thought 
it would be presumption in me to advise you, when you have my reverend 
father, Mr. Perronet, to advise with. To send a line, in those circum- 
stances, appeared to me like ' sending coals to Newcastle.' 

" However, having now an opportunity to forward a letter to London, 
I shall say what I have thought on the subject. It is exceeding well to 
visit from house to house, even the Infidels, to feel their pulse, and to 
see whether they do not begin to entertain more favourable thoughts of 
'the pearl of great price' than grunting 'swine' or snarling 'dog's' 
generally do. Such visits, half upon the footing of Christian love, and 
half upon the footing of human civility, may tend to remove prejudices. 



1 These names are in the original letter. 

2 Letters, 1791, p. 307. 



Age 55.] 



Letter to Melville Home. 



555 



In some cases, writing a letter with tenderness, or giving a little tract 
suited to the circumstances of the person, may clear our own conscience, 
though it should do him no good. 

"My love, respects, and duty, to your venerable Vicar, who, I am 
told, is now your grandfather. 1 I hope the report is well grounded; 
and, if it is, I wish you joy on entering into so respectable a family ; 
and I wish you and your partner all the help and comfort I find in mine ; 
who, as well as myself, desires to be kindly remembered to all the dear 
family at Shoreham. 

" I am, dear Sir, your affectionate brother and servant in Christ, 

"John Fletcher." 2 

The Rev. Melville Horne was one of Fletcher's protegees. 
At Wesley's Conference, in 1784, he had been "admitted on 
trial," as a Methodist Itinerant Preacher, and appointed to 
the Liverpool circuit. It is well known that, after this, he 
obtained episcopal ordination, became curate at Madeley, 
published a collection of Fletcher's letters in 1791, went as 
a missionary to Western Africa, and, on his return to 
England, rose to considerable distinction. Fletcher had lent 
the young itinerant certain books, and now wrote to him the 
following letter, which refers to a practice which must have 
been of recent adoption. Romaine made it a rule to read 
nothing but the Bible ; wisely or unwisely, Fletcher had 
begun, to some extent, to copy his example : — 

"Madeley, May 10, 1785. 

" Dear Brother, — I am sorry you should have been uneasy about 
the books. I received them safely, after they had lain for some days 
at Salop. I seldom look into any book but my Bible ; not out of con- 
tempt, as if I thought they cannot teach me what I do not know ; but 
because, ' Vita brevis, ars tonga," 1 I may never look into them again. 

" Go on improving yourself by reading, but above all by meditation 
and grayer : and allow our Lord to refine you in the fire of temptation. 
Where you see a want, at home or abroad, within or without, look upon 
that want as a warning to avoid the cause of the leanness you perceive, 
and a call to secure the blessings which are ready to take their flight ; 
for sometimes ' the true riches,' like those of this world, make them- 
selves wings and flee away. The heavenly dove may be grieved, and 
take its flight to humbler and more peaceful roofs. I am glad you do 
not want hard or violent measures : I hope you will never countenance 
them, no, not against what you dislike. I believe things will turn out 



1 This was a premature statement. Mr. Dickenson did not marry Miss 
Briggs, Mr. Perronet's grand-daughter, until three years later. 

2 IVesiey an Methodist Magazine, 1825, p. 745. 



556 Wesley* s Designated Successor. [1785- 



very well at the Conference, and I shall be a witness of it, if the Lord 
gives me a commission to be a spectator of the order and quietness of 
those who shall be there. If not, I shall help you by prayer to draw 
the blessing of love upon our friends. 1 

" In being moderate, humble, and truly desirous to be a Christian, — 
that is, to be the least, the last, and the servant of all, we avoid running 
ourselves into difficulties ; we escape many temptations, and many 
mortifying disappointments. For my part, as I expect nothing from 
men, they cannot disappoint me ; and, as I expect all good things from 
God, in the time, way, measure, and manner it pleaseth Him to bestow, 
here I cannot be disappointed ; because He does, and will do, all things 
well. 

" I trust you labour for God and souls, not for praise and self. When 
the latter are our aim, God, in mercy, blesses us with barrenness, that 
we may give up Barabbas, and release the humble Jesus, whom we 
crucify afresh by setting the thief on the throne, and the Lord of glory 
as our footstool : for so do those who preach Christ out of contention, 
or that they may have the praise of men. 

" That God may bless you and your labours is the prayer of your old 
brother, 

"John Fletcher." 2 

A capital letter for a young Methodist preacher, like 
Melville Home, who, six years afterwards, published it for 
the benefit of all Methodist probationers. 

At this time, fever was raging at Madeley. Mr. W. Bosan- 
quet, in an unpublished letter, addressed to his sister, Mrs. 
Fletcher, and dated " Bishopsgate Street, May 16, 1785," 
observed : — 

"I am very happy to hear that both you and Mr. Fletcher have escaped 
the fevers, having been so much among them. The poor must feel 
themselves greatly obliged for this ; for it is of much more use to visit 
them when sick than even to give them money." 

The revered Vicar of Shoreham, the Rev. Vincent Perronet, 
died exactly a week before the date of this letter, and was 
buried on May 14, by Charles Wesley, who wrote to Mrs. 
Fletcher, as follows : — 

" Marylebone, May 24, 1785. 
" My Dear Sister, — If you love Mr. Fletcher, you ought to love the 
poor Methodists ; for to their prayers you owe him, and he you. I found 



1 Evidently, Fletcher hoped to attend Wesley's Conference, begun in 
London on July 26, 1785, but his hope was not fulfilled. 

2 Letters, 1791, p. 309. 



Age 55.J 



Fletcher s Wife III of Fever. 



557 



words, and the people faith, while we heard, at Bristol" (in 1776), "that 
our friend was just departing. 1 You have been the instrument of adding 
some years to his valuable life. Remember, for the short time that I 
shall want your prayers, my dear friend, your old faithful servant, 

" C. Wesley." 

And then, on the same sheet, the poet of Methodism wrote 
to Fletcher himself the following : — 

" My Very Dear Brother, — You ought to have paid the last office, 
instead of me, to our most venerable Archbishop at Shoreham. On 
Sunday, I deposited the sacred ashes in his partner's grave, and preached 
twice. His death was such as his life promised. For many years, he 
breathed the pure spirit of love. The survivor who follows him nearest 
is longo jbroximus intervallo. 

"A fortnight ago, I preached the condemned sermon to above twenty 
criminals. Every one of them, I have good grounds to believe, died 
penitent. Twenty more must die next week. 

" Sally presents her duty and love: the rest join. Direct to me in 
Marylebone, and help me to depart in peace." 2 

This, probably, was the last letter which Fletcher received 
from his old and loving friend. Within three years after- 
wards, Charles Wesley did " depart in peace." Fletcher's 
last letters, written eight weeks after the date of the fore- 
going, were addressed to James Ireland, Esq., and to Lady 
Mary Fitzgerald. It has been already stated that fever was 
fatally prevalent at Madeley in the summer of 1785, and an 
extract from a letter written by William Bosanquet, Esq., 
expressing his happiness that Fletcher and his wife had 
escaped the pestilence, has been already given. Soon after 
that, the sister of Mr. Bosanquet caught the infection ; and 
Fletcher wrote as follows to Mr. Ireland : — 

"Madeley, July 19, 1785. 

"My Dear Friend, — Blessed be God, we are still alive, and, in 
the midst of many infirmities, we enjoy a degree of health, spiritually 
and bodily. O how good was the Lord, to come as Son of man to live 
here for us, and to come in His Spirit to live in us for ever ! This is a 
mystery of godliness. The Lord make us full witnesses of it ! 

" A week ago, I was tried to the quick by a fever with which my dear 
wife was afflicted. Two persons, whom she had visited, having been 
carried off, within a pistol-shot of our house, I dreaded her being the 



1 The reference is to the hymn quoted at page 362 of the present work. 

2 " Memoir of Mrs. Mortimer," p. 101. 



55 8 Wesley s Designated Successor. 



[1785. 



third. But the Lord has heard prayer, and she is spared. Oh, what is 
life ! ' On what a slender thread hang everlasting things ! ' My comfort, 
however, is, that this thread is as strong as the will of God, and the 
word of His grace, which cannot be broken. 

"That grace and peace, love and thankful joy, may ever attend you 
is the wish of your most obliged friends, 

"John and Mary Fletcher." 1 

The day after this, he wrote the following to the Right 
Honorable Lady Mary Fitzgerald : — 

"Madeley, July 20, 1785. 
" Hon. and Dear Lady, — We have received your kind letter, and 
have mournfully acquiesced in the will of our heavenly Father, who, by 
various infirmities and providences, weans us from ourselves and our 
friends, that we may be His without reserve. It was, perhaps, a peculiar 
mercy that Providence blocked up your way to this place this summer. 
A bad putrid fever carries off several people in these parts. Two of our 
neighbours died of it last week ; and my wife, who had visited them, 
was taken in so violent a manner, that I was obliged to offer her up to 
God in good earnest, as an oblation worthy a son of Abraham. I hope 
the worst is over ; but her weakness will long preach to me, as well as 
my own. 

" Dying people, we live in the midst of dying people. O let us live 
in sight of a dying, rising Saviour; and the prospect of death will become 
first tolerable, and then jo) r ous ! Or, if we weep, as our Lord, at the 
grave of our friends, or at the side of their deathbeds, we shall triumph 
in hope that all will be for the glory of God, and the good of our souls. 

" I am, my dear lady, etc., 

"John Fletcher." 2 

Twenty-five days after writing this, his last letter, Fletcher 
himself was dead. His wife, who had so narrowly escaped 
becoming a victim to the prevailing fever, shall tell the 
remainder of his earthly story. The day after the funeral, 
she wrote a letter to Wesley, a copy of which she immediately 
gave to Fletcher's " old friend, Winifred Edmunds, whose 
son," says she, " prints it for the satisfaction of many who 
have made applications for some account of God's dealings 
with my beloved husband. I consider this a debt I owe to 
his dear orphans at Madeley ; and, as it is probable I may 
be called away by the same fever, perhaps this may be the 



1 Letters, 1791, p. 310. 

2 Fletcher's Works, vol. viii., p. 329. 



Age 55-1 Mrs. Fletchers Account of her Husband. 559 



last office of love I can yield them." The title of the pub- 
lication was, " A Letter to the Rev. Mr. Wesley, on the 
Death of the Rev. Mr. Fletcher, Vicar of Madeley, in Shrop- 
shire. Madeley : Printed by J. Edmunds/' i6mo, 16 pp. 
About the same time, however, Mrs. Fletcher wrote a much 
longer account, which was printed with the following title : 
" A Letter to Mons. H. L. de la Flechere, Assessor Ballival 
of Nyon, in the Canton of Berne, Switzerland, on the Death 
of his Brother, the Reverend John William De la Flechere, 
Twenty-five Years Vicar of Madeley, Shropshire. London, 
1786." i2mo, 64 pp. From these two publications, the 
following account is taken. Writing to Fletcher's brother, 
the mourning widow said : — 

"As there is no one to whom my dearest husband was more closely 
united than yourself, so there is no one who can more tenderly sympa- 
thize with me in a loss so mutual. You have expressed a desire to 
receive from my own pen some account of a life the most angelic I 
have ever known ; and I will endeavour to comply with your request 
as far as my weak state of body and torn nerves will permit. 

"From the beginning, he was a laborious workman in his Lord's 
vineyard, till he had spent himself in the best of services and was 
ripening fast for glory. Those sinners who fled from him he pursued 
to every corner of his parish by all sorts of ways, public and private, 
early and late, in season and out of season, entreating and warning 
them to flee from the wrath to come. Some made it an excuse for not 
attending the sendee on Sunday mornings that they did not awake 
early enough to get their families ready. He promised to be their 
watchman : and, taking a bell in his hand, was accustomed, at five in the 
morning, to go round the more distant parts of the parish, reminding 
the inhabitants of their invitation to the house of God. 

" But he did not confine his labours to this parish. For many years, 
he regularly preached at places eight, ten, or sixteen miles distant, 
returning home the same night, though he seldom reached it before one 
or. two in the morning. At a little Society, which he had gathered 
about six miles from Madeley, he preached two or three times in a week 
at five in the morning. As to visiting the sick, this was a duty for 
which he was ever ready. If he heard the knocker in the middle of the 
coldest winter night, his window was instantly thrown up, and the 
uniform answer was, ' I will attend you immediately.'' 

*' His frequent journeys to Trevecca, where he superintended a college 
of young men designed for the ministry, added much to his other 
fatigues, — riding on bad roads and wading through waters. Very often, 
in travelling through Wales, he was obliged to lie in damp and unsuit- 
able lodgings ; which, I have heard him observe, gave a deep stroke to 
his constitution. 



560 Wesley's Designated Successor, [1785. 



"With regard to the success of his labours, it is a subject on which he 
has so often stopped my mouth that I will only say, besides the great 
reformation that has taken place in this parish, as to outward behaviour, 
he has left behind him a goodly company of upright, earnest people, 
whom he had gathered into little Societies, and who now mourn, as 
sheep bereaved of their dear shepherd. 

" Never did I behold any one more dead to the things of the world. 
I have heard him sa}^ he was never happier than when he had given 
away the last penny he had in the house. If at any time I had gold in 
the drawer, it seemed to afford him no comfort ; but if he could find a 
handful of small silver when going out to visit the sick, he would express 
as much pleasure over it as a miser would in discovering a bag of 
hidden treasure. He was never better pleased with my employment 
than when he had set me to prepare food or physic for the poor. He 
could hardly relish his dinner if some sick neighbour had not a part ; 
nor could I sometimes keep the linen in his drawers for the same reason. 
On Sabbath days, he provided refreshments for numbers of people who 
came from a distance to hear the Word, and his house was devoted to 
their convenience. Once a poor widow, who feared God, being brought 
into difficulties, he immediately took all his pewter from the kitchen 
shelves, saying, ' This I can do without ; it will relieve your want, and 
a wooden trencher serves me better.' Sometimes, in epidemic disorders, 
when the neighbours were afraid to nurse the sick, he has gone from 
house to house seeking help for them ; and, when none could be found, 
has offered to sit up with the sick himself. In his younger years, he was 
ready to weep when five or six letters were brought, at threepence or 
fourpence a-piece, and he, perhaps, had only a shilling in the house to 
distribute among the poor to whom he was going. Frequently would 
he say to me, ' O Maty, cannot we do without beer ? Let us drink 
water, and buy less meat, that our necessities may give way to the 
extremities of the poor.' But with all his charity, he was careful to 
avoid debts. While he gave all he could, he made it a rule to pay 
ready money for everything, believing this was the only way to keep the 
mind free from cares. 

" He always had a steady, firm reliance upon the love and faithfulness 
of God. Sometimes, when I have expressed a fear of trials, he would 
answer, ' The Lord orders all, and I leave everything to Him. I always 
seem conscious He gives His angels charge concerning us, and there- 
fore think we are equally safe everywhere,' He had many remarkable 
deliverances. Sometimes, both himself and his horse, in dark nights, 
have fallen down steep places, and yet both have been preserved. Once, 
I believe in Wales, in passing over a wooden bridge it broke asunder, 
and he and his mare sank into the river, but both got safe to land. 

"A little before his last illness, being on his knees in prayer for light 
whether he should go to London or not, 1 the answer seemed to him, ' No, 
not to London, but to your grave.' Acquainting me with this, he said, 



1 No doubt to attend Wesley's Conference, which began on July 26. 



age 55-] F^hcrs Last I.Vmss, 



vriah a heavealv sraile. ' Sataa "tali reareseat this a? srraethia^ a^rfal. 
the cold graz?e\ the cold grave/' On the following Sabbath (which I 
think was the nest day), the anthem sung- in the church was the Twenty- 
third Psalm. On his return home, he observed how the words of the 




■work of the Lara La variras abates aaa sitaatioas. the seasons cf 
closest etaazraatra ~ith G:a ~ere ahvavs in his c~ra hrzse aaa chz: 



" With regard to his communion with God, he constantly endeavoured 
to maintain an uninterrupted sense of the Divine presence. In order 
to this, he was slow of speech, and had the greatest government of 
has vrr-fs. He attea. he spake, as Tarawa:, as aaaer the iraatehiate 
eye of God. Thus setting God always before him, he remained unmoved, 
at all tiaaes possessing internal re: :lle:ti:n. I never sa~ aim aivertea 
therefrom on any occasion whatever, I travelled with him above a 
thousand miles, during which journeys neither change of company, 
place, nor circumstances ever seemed to make the least difference in his 
fixed attention to the presence of God. He was always striving to raise 
his own and every other spirit into close and immediate intercourse 
with God ; and I can say, with truth, that all his union with me was so 
rriiaglea — i:h prayer aaa praise, every eaaplryrnen: aaa ever." meal 
were perfumed therewith. 

•"• Sorae :ime ago. vaea :he fever began: :■ rage amtag as. he preached 
a sermon on visiting the sick ; in which he seemed to be carried out of 
himself, observing, 'What do you fear? You are afraid of catching 
the distemper, and of dying with those who have it. O fear no more ! 
What an honour to die in your Master's service ! If this were permitted 
to me, I should esteem it a singular favour.' 



" Daring the las: fevc mcnahs. thrash his health aaa strezgrh seasibly 




36 



5 62 



Wesley's Designated Successor. 



[1785. 



but drinking deeper into God. We spent much time in prayer for the 
fulness of the Spirit, and were led to an act of abandonment (as we 
called it) of our whole selves into the hands of God, to do or to suffer 
whatever was pleasing to Him. 

" On Thursday, August 4, he was occupied in the work of God 
from three in the afternoon till nine at night; when he came home, and 
said, 'I have taken cold.' On Friday and Saturday, he was poorly; 
but went out part of each day, and seemed uncommonly drawn out in 
prayer. 

" On Saturday night, his fever first appeared very strong. I begged 
him not to go to the church in the morning ; but to let a pious brother, 1 
who was with us, preach in the yard ; but he told me, it was the will of 
the Lord that he should go. When I met a little company of our pious 
women, on Sunday morning, I begged they would pray that he might 
be strengthened. In reading the prayers, he almost fainted. I got 
through the crowd, with a friend, and entreated him to come out of the 
desk, as did some others ; bat, in his sweet manner, he let us know we 
were not to interrupt the order of God. I then retired to my pew. All 
around me were in tears. When he was a little refreshed, by the windows 
being opened and a nosegay thrown into the desk by a friend, he pro- 
ceeded with the service. Going into the pulpit, he preached with a 
strength and recollection which surprised us all. In his first prayer, he 
said, ' Lord, Thou wilt manifest Thy strength in weakness. We confer 
not with flesh and blood ; but put our trust under the shadow of Thy 
wings.' 

" His text was, ■ O Lord, Thou preservest man and beast. How excel- 
lent is Thy lovingkindness, O God ! therefore the children of men put their 
trust under the shadow of Thy wings.' After sermon, he went up the 
aisle to the communion-table, with these words, ' I am going to throw 
myself under the wings of the cherubim, before the mercy-seat.' The 
congregation was large, and the service lasted till nearly two o'clock. 
Sometimes he could scarcely stand, and was often obliged to stop for 
want of power to speak. The people were deeply affected. Weeping 
was on every side. Notwithstanding his extreme weakness, he gave 
out several verses of hymns, and uttered various lively sentences of 
exhortation. 

"As soon as the service was over, we hurried him away to bed, where 
he immediately fainted. He then dropped into a sleep for some time ; 
and, when he awoke, he cried out, with a pleasant smile, ' Now, my 
dear, thou seest I am no worse for doing the Lord's work. He never 
fails me when I trust in Him.' He dozed most of the evening, now and 
then awaking full of the praises of God. At night, his fever returned, 
and his strength decreased amazingly. 

" On Monday and Tuesday, he lay on a couch in the study, was at 
times very restless, but often slept. When awake, he was delighted in 
hearing me read hymns, and tracts on faith and love. His words were 



1 No doubt, one of Wesley's preachers. 



Age 55.] 



Fletcher Dying. 



563 



animating, and his patience beyond expression. I asked, ' Hast thou 
any conviction that the Lord is about to take thee ? ' He answered, 
' No, not in particular ; only I always see death so near, that we both 
seem to stand on the verge of eternity.' Sometimes he would say, ' O 
Polly ! shall I ever see the day when thou must be carried out to be 
buried ? I shrink at giving my dear Polly to the worms.' Awaking on 
one occasion, he said, ' It was Israel's fault that they asked for signs. 
We will not do so ; but, abandoning our whole selves into the hands of 
God, we will there lie patiently, assured that He will do all things 
well.' 

" On Wednesday, August 10, he told me, he had received such a 
manifestation of the full meaning of the words, ' God is love,' as he 
could not tell. ' It fills me,' he said, 'it fills me every moment. O 
Polly ! my dear Polly ! God is love ! Shout ! Shout aloud ! Oh ! it so 
fills me, that I want a gust of praise to go to the ends of the earth. But 
it seems as if I could not speak much longer. Let us fix upon a sign 
between ourselves' (tapping me twice with his finger). 'By this I mean 
God is love, and we will draw each other into God. Observe / by this 
we will draw each other into God.'' Sally coming in, he cried, 'O 
Sally ! God is love / Shout, both of you ! I want to hear you shout His 
praise ! ' All this time, his medical attendant hoped he was in no danger. 
He knew his disease to be the fever ; but, as he had no bad headache, 
slept much without the least delirium, and had an almost regular pulse, 
the symptoms were thought to be favourable. 

' ' On Thursday, August 1 1 , his speech began to fail ; but to his friendly 
doctor he would not be silent while he had any power to speak, often 
saying, ' O Sir, you take much thought for my body ; give me leave to 
take thought for your soul.' When I could scarcely understand anything 
he said, I spoke the words, ' God is love /' Instantly he caught them, 
and broke out in a rapture, ' God is love, love, love / O for the gust of 
praise I want to sound ! ' Here his voice again failed. If I named his 
sufferings, he would smile, and make the sign. 

" On Friday, August 12, finding his body covered with spots, I so far 
understood them as to feel a sword pierce through my soul. As I knelt 
by his bed, with my hand in his, intreating the Lord to be with us in 
this tremendous hour, he strove to say many things, but could not. At 
length, pressing my hand, and often repeating the sign, he breathed 
out, ' Head of the Church, be head to my wife !' Sally said to him, 
' My dear master, do you know me ?' He replied, ' Sally, God will put 
His right hand under you.' She added, ' O my dear master, should 
you be taken away, what a disconsolate creature will my poor mistress 
be!' He answered, 'God will be her all in all.' He had always 
delighted in the lines — 

" ' Jesu's blood, through earth and skies, 
Mercy, free, boundless mercy cries.' 

"When I repeated them to him, he cried, 'Boundless, boundless ! ' 
and added, though with great difficulty — 



5^4 



Wesley* s Designated Successor. 



[1785. 



" ' Mercy's full power I soon shall prove, 
Lov'd with an everlasting love.' 

" On the afternoon of Saturday, August 13, while a few Christian 
friends were standing near his bed, he stretched out his hand to each of 
them, and, to a minister, remarked, 'Are you ready to assist to-morrow? ' 
One asked, ' Do you think the Lord will raise you up ?' He strove to 
answer, ' Raise in resur . . . raise in resur . . . To another, who 
put the same question, he replied, 'I leave it all to God.' I said, 'My 
dear creature, I ask not for myself, but for the sake of others. If Jesus 
is very present with thee, lift thy right hand.' He did so. I added, 
' If the prospect of glory opens before thee, repeat the sign.' He raised 
his hand again ; and, in half a minute, a second time. After this, his 
dear hands moved no more ; but, on my asking, ' Art thou in much 
pain ?' he answered, ' No.' 

"From this time, he entered into a kind of sleep, though with his 
eyes open and fixed. Twenty-four hours, my dearly beloved breathed 
like a person in common sleep ; and then, at thirty-five minutes past 
ten on Sunday night, August 14, his precious soul entered into the joy 
of his Lord, in the fifty- sixth year of his age. I was scarce a minute at 
a time from him, night or day, during his illness, and I can truly say — 

" ' No cloud did arise, to darken the skies, 

Or hide for one moment his Lord from his eyes.' 

"And here I break off my mournful story. On my bleeding heart, his 
fair picture of heavenly excellence will be for ever drawn. When I call 
to mind his ardent zeal, his laborious endeavours to seek and save the 
lost, his diligence in the employment of his time, his Christlike con- 
descension towards me, and his uninterrupted converse with heaven, 
I may well be allowed to add, my loss is beyond the power of words to 
paint. 

" On August 17, his dear remains were deposited in Madeley church- 
yard ; amid the tears and lamentations of thousands, who flocked about 
the bier of their dead pastor. Between the house and the church, they 
sung these verses : — 

" ' With heavenly weapons he hath fought 
The battles of the Lord : 
Finish' d his course, and kept the faith, 
And gain'd the great reward. 

" ' God hath laid up in heaven for him 
A crown which cannot fade ; 
The righteous Judge, at that great day, 
Shall place it on his head.' 

"The service was performed by the Rev. Mr. Hatton, Rector of 



Age 55-] Fletcher s Death and Burial. 



565 



Waters-Upton, whom the Lord moved, in a pathetic manner, to speak 
to the weeping flock. At my request, he read the following paper : — 1 

"'It was the desire of my beloved husband to be buried in this plain 
manner, and, out of tenderness, he begged that I might not be present. 
In all things I would obey him. 

" ' Permit me, by the mouth of a friend, to bear my testimony, to the 
glory of God, that I never knew anyone walk so closely with God as he 
did. The Lord gave him a conscience tender as the apple of an eye. 
He literally preferred the interest of every one to his own. He shared 
his all with the poor, who lay so close his heart, that, when his speech 
was so gone that he could utter nothing without difficulty, he cried out. 
' 1 O my Poor / What will become of my Poor ? ' ' He was blessed with 
so great a degree of humility as is scarcely to be found. I am witness, 
how often he has taken real pleasure in being treated with contempt. 
It seemed the very food of his soul, to be little and unknown. When he 
said to me, " Thou wilt write a line or two to my brother in Switzerland, 
if I die," I replied, " My dear, dear love, I will write him all the Lord's 
dealings with thee." "No, no," said he, "write nothing about me. 
I only desire to be forgotten. God is ally 

" ' His diligent visitation of the sick laid the foundation of the spotted 
fever of which he died; and his vehement desire to take his last leave 
of you, with dying lips and hands, gave (it is supposed) the finishing 
stroke, by preparing his blood for putrefaction. Thus did he live and 
die your servant. 

" ' He walked with death always in sight. About two months ago, he 
came to me and said, " My dear love, I know not how it is, but I have 
a strange impression death is very near us, as if it would be a sudden 
stroke upon one of us ; and it draws out my soul in prayer that we may 
be ready." He then broke out, " Lord, prepare the soul Thou wilt call ; 
and, O stand by the poor disconsolate one who shall be left behind ! " 

"'Three years, nine months, and two days, I have possessed my 
heavenly-minded husband; but now the sun of my earthly joy is set 
for ever.'' " 

This is a very artless story ; but it is not less valuable 
because of that. Mrs. Fletcher sent a copy to Charles 
Wesley, together with the following note : — 

"Madeley, August 2^ 1785. 
" Dear Sir, — Enclosed you have an account of my feelings when I 
thought myself dying, as did most about me. I prayed for strength to 
do justice to my dearest, dearest love. I wrote it in one day, but could 
not go over it a second time. Take it, then, as it flowed from my full 



1 Mr. Hatton also preached a funeral sermon, founded on Hebrews 
xiii. 7. 



5 66 



Wesley' 's Designated Successor. 



[1785. 



heart, without a second thought, and pray for your deeply distressed 
friend. I cannot find your brother. I wrote to him at first, but have 
got no answer." 1 

Wesley, in his eighty-third year, was in the west of 
England, travelling and preaching with surprising energy. 
On the day of Fletcher's death, he preached twice at Salis- 
bury ; then hastened to Shaftesbury 7 , Castle-Carey, Shepton- 
Mallet, Taunton, Collumpton, Exeter, and Plymouth ; then 
went right through Cornwall ; and, on September 3, got to 
Bristol, in the neighbourhood of which city he spent a month. 
On October 3, he came to London ; then made what he 
calls " a little excursion " into Hertfordshire, another into 
Oxfordshire, and a third into Norfolk. Here, at Nor- 
wich, on October 24, he found time to write a sermon on 
the death of Fletcher, which he delivered in London on 
November 6. The sermon was published immediately, with 
the following address " To the reader " prefixed 2 : — 

"A consciousness of my own inability to describe, in a manner worthy 
of the subject, such a person as Air. Fletcher, was one great reason of 
my not writing this sooner. I judged, only an A^elles was proper to 
paint an Alexandei' : But I, at length, submitted to importunity, and 
hastily put together some memorials of this great man : intending, if 
God permit, when I have more leisure and more materials, to write a 
fuller account of his life. 

"Johx Wesley. 

" London, JYovemder 9, 1785." 

The concluding paragraph of Wesley's sermon must be 
quoted : — 

"For many years, I despaired of finding an}' inhabitant of Great 
Britain that could stand in any degree of comparison with Gregorv 
Lopez, or Monsieur de Renty. But let any impartial person judge, if 
Mr. Fletcher was at all inferior to them ? Did he not experience as 
deep communion with God, and as high a measure of inward holiness, 
as was experienced either by one or the other of those burning and 
shining lights ? And it is certain his outward holiness shone before 



1 Jackson's "Life of C. Wesley," vol. ii., p. 432. 

- The title was, "A Sermon preached on the Occasion of the Death 
of the Rev. Mr. John Fletcher, Vicar of Madeley, Shropshire. By John 
Wesley, A.M." i2mo. 32 pp. 



age 55-] Wesley preaches Fletcher* *s Funeral Sermon. 567 



men, with full as bright a lustre as theirs. But if any should attempt 
to draw a parallel between them, there are two circumstances that 
deserve consideration. One is, we are not assured that the writers of 
their Lives did not extenuate, if not suppress, what was amiss in them. 
And some things amiss we are assured there were, namely, many 
touches of superstition, and some of idolatry, in worshipping Saints, 
the Virgin Mary in particular. But I have not suppressed or extenuated 
anything in Mr. Fletcher's character. For indeed I knew nothing that 
was amiss, nothing that needed to be extenuated, much less suppressed. 
A second circumstance is, that the Writers of their Lives could not 
have so full a knowledge of them, as both Mrs. Fletcher and I had of 
Mr. Fletcher, being both eye and ear-witnesses of his whole conduct. 
Consequently, we know that his life was not sullied with any mixture of 
either idolatry or superstition. I was intimately acquainted with him 
for above thirty years. I conversed with him morning, noon, and night, 
without the least reserve, during a journey of many hundred miles. 
And, in all that time, I never heard him speak one improper word, nor 
saw him do an improper action. — To conclude. Many exemplary men 
have I known, holy in heart and life, within fourscore years. But one 
equal to him I have not known : one so inwardly and outwardly devoted 
to God. So unblameable a character in every respect, I have not found 
either in Europe or America. And I scarce expect to find another such, 
on this side eternity. " 

Human praise could not be higher than this ; and yet 
even the ^Monthly Review, which had so often and so un- 
justly denounced the Methodists, in its notice of Wesley's 
sermon, remarked : — 

" Mr. Fletcher was one of the most considerable among the Methodist 
ministers of the Wesleyan division. We have long been acquainted 
with his good character ; and we firmly believe that the high encomiums 
here passed on him were justly merited in their fullest extent." 1 

Scores of other eulogies have been written, but only four 
shall be added here, and these by persons who were well 
acquainted with the man of whom they speak. 

The Rev. Joshua Gilpin's elaborate biographical " Notes," 
interspersed in Fletcher's " Portrait of St, Paul,'' are too 
numerous and lengthened to be introduced, but an extract 
from the last of them Jthe twenty-ninth) must be given: — 

" On the day of Mr. Fletcher's departure, as I was preparing to 



1 Monthly Review \ 1786, p. 79. 



568 Wesley's Designated Successor. [1785-" 



attend my own church, which was at the distance of nine miles from 
Madeley, I received a message from Mrs. Fletcher, requesting my imme- 
diate attendance at the vicarage. I instantly followed the messenger, and 
found Mr. Fletcher with every symptom of approaching dissolution upon 
him. I had ever looked up to this man of God with an extraordinary 
degree of affection and reverence ; and, on this afflicting occasion, my 
heart was uncommonly affected and depressed. It was now in vain to 
recollect that public duty required my presence in another place. Un- 
fitted for every duty, except that of silently watching the bed of death, 
I found it impossible to withdraw from the solemn scene. I had received 
from this evangelical teacher, in days that we.re past, many excellent 
precepts with respect to holy living ; and now I desired to receive from 
him the last important lesson with respect to holy dying. And truly 
this concluding lesson was of inestimable worth, since so much patience 
and resignation, so much peace and composure, were scarcely ever dis- 
covered in the same circumstances before. 

"While their pastor was breathing out his soul into the hands of a 
faithful Creator, his people were offering up their joint supplications on 
his behalf in the house of God. Little, however, was seen among them 
but affliction and tears. 1 The whole village wore an air of consternation 
and sadness, and not one joyful song was heard among its inhabitants. 
Hasty messengers were passing to and fro with anxious enquiries and 
confused reports ; and the members of every family sat together in 
silence that day, awaiting, with trembling expectation, the issue of every 
hour. After the conclusion of the evening service, several of the poor, 
who came from distant parts, and who were usually entertained under 
Mr. Fletcher's roof, still lingered about the house, and seemed unable 
to tear themselves away from the place without a sight of their expiring 
pastor. Secretly informed of their desire, I obtained them the per- 
mission they wished ; and the door of the chamber being set open, 
immediately before which Mr. Fletcher was sitting upright in his bed, 
with the curtains undrawn, they slowly moved, one by one, along the 
gallery, severally pausing as they passed by the door, and casting in a 
look of mingled supplication and anguish. It was, indeed, an affecting 
sight. 

" And now the hour speedily approached that was to put a solemn 
termination to our hopes and fears. His weakness very perceptibly 
increased, but his countenance continued unaltered to the last. Mrs. 



1 Another writer, who was present, relates that the congregation sang, 
or tried to sing, the affecting hymn which was composed and used 
at the time of Fletcher's dangerous illness in 1776 (see pp. 362 and 368). 
He further says, "I never was witness to a scene so impressive and 
pathetic. Every breast felt, every countenance expressed, one common 
sentiment. Tears, sobs, and suppressed groans showed how sincerely 
the people esteemed their venerable pastor. When the hymn was sung, 
there was a general burst of sorrow. Even those who had spurned his 
instructions, deprecated his death as a public loss, and expressed their 
grief with uncommon agitation." {Methodist Magazine, 1802, p. 572.) 



Age 55.] 



Testimonies concerning Fletcher. 



569 



Fletcher was kneeling by the side of her departing husband, the medical 
attendant sat at his head, while I sorrowfully waited near his feet. Un- 
certain whether or not he was totally separated from us, we pressed 
nearer ; but his warfare was accomplished, and the happy spirit had 
taken its everlasting flight." 

James Ireland, Esq., was one of Fletcher's most loving 
and well-beloved friends. In an unpublished letter, addressed 
to Mrs. Fletcher, and dated "Brislington, November 6, 1785," 
he says, Wesley had. informed him he was about to write the 
" Life of Fletcher," and had asked him to supply materials. 
In his reply, he had said, " I cannot assist you to write the 
life of my dear friend, though I have ever respected and 
honoured you." Mr. Ireland adds, that whatever information 
he can furnish he will send to Mrs. Fletcher, and leave it to 
her to use as she thinks best. He then proceeds : — 

" I have often felt that I would have divided my last shilling with Mr. 
Fletcher. We were once for months together, day and night ; and 
when we parted, we both wept. Such a soul I never knew ; such a 
great man, in every sense of the word. He was too great to bear the 
name of any sect. Mr. Townsend, with whom I lately parted, speaks of 
him as the greatest man that has lived in this century, and begs his 
life may not be penned in haste." 

In another unpublished letter, also addressed to Mrs. 
Fletcher, and dated "October 6, 1786," Mr. Ireland wrote: — 

"I never saw Mr. Fletcher's equal. On him great grace was be- 
stowed. What deadness to the world ! What spiritual mindedness ! 
What zeal for souls ! What communion with God ! What intercourse 
with heaven ! What humility at the feet of Jesus ! What moderation 
tow r ards all men ! What love for the poor ! In short, he possessed the 
mind which was in Christ Jesus." 

The Rev. Henry Venn, after reading Wesley's " Life of 
Fletcher," wrote as follows to Lady Mary Fitzgerald : — 

"Yelling, March 3, 1787. Mr. Fletcher's humility was so unfeigned 
and so deep, that when I thanked him for two sermons he had one day 
preached to my people at Huddersfield, he answered as no man ever 
did to me. With eyes and hands uplifted, he exclaimed, ' Pardon, 
pardon, pardon, O my God ! ' The words went to my very soul. Great 
grace was upon this blessed servant of Christ. 

" Love to man and bowels of mercies displayed in him a noble imita- 



570 



Wesley's Designated Successor. [1785- 



tion of his Incarnate God. He indeed thought a day lost, and could 
find no rest in his soul, unless he was doing good to the bodies and 
souls of men. 

"Love to the Lord. — How did it govern and flourish in dear Mr. 
Fletcher ! His admirable consort tells us, he scarcely was awake in 
the night a moment without lifting up his soul to God in holy aspirations. 

" I have seen Mr. Fletcher, for six weeks together, under a hectic 
fever, sometimes spitting blood, when night after night he could rest 
very little — well pleased to suffer — never complaining, never but cheer- 
ful. Once, when I asked him how he did, ' Oh ! ' said he, ' how light 
is the chastisement I suffer ! How heavy the strokes I deserve ! I love 
the rod of my heavenly Father ! ' Like his Saviour, he could continue 
in prayer, in the wood, all night long ; and, like Him, lie prostrate on 
the ground, pleading for grace to fulfil his ministry." 1 

Between Fletcher and Joseph Benson there was a most 
intimate and confidential friendship. Benson, in a letter to 
Wesley, wrote : — 

"As to drawing the character of that great and good man, Mr. 
Fletcher, it is what I will not attempt. I have been looking over many 
of his letters, and observe in them all, what I have a thousand times 
observed in his conversation and behaviour, the plainest marks of every 
Christian grace and virtue. 

" Perhaps, if he followed his Master more closely in one thing than 
another, it was in humility. He was constantly upon his guard lest 
any expression should drop, either from his lips or pen, which tended 
to make anyone think well of him ; either on account of his family, or 
learning, or parts, or usefulness. He took as much pains to conceal 
his excellences, as others do to show theirs. 

" He was a man of a serious spirit, one that stood at the utmost 
distance from levity of every kind. Though he was constantly cheerful, 
as rejoicing in hope of his heavenly inheritance, yet he had too deep a 
sense of his own wants, and the wants of the Church of God, as also of 
the sins and miseries of mankind, to be at any time light or trifling. 

"In hungering and thirsting after righteousness, he w r as pecu- 
liarly worthy of our imitation. He never rested in anything he had 
either experienced or done in spiritual matters. He was a true Christian 
racer, always on the stretch for higher and better things. Though his 
attainments, both in experience and usefulness, were far above the 
common standard, yet the language of his conversation and behaviour 
always was, ' Not as though I had already attained, either were already 
perfected ; but I follow after, if by any means I may apprehend that for 
which I am apprehended of Christ Jesus.' He had his eye upon a full 



1 " Life of Rev. H. Venn," pp. 578-584. 



Age 55.] 



Testimonies concerning Fletcher. 



571 



conformity to the Son of God; or what the Apostle terms, 'the measure 
of the stature of the fulness of Christ.' Nor could he be satisfied with 
airything less. 

' ' He was meek, like his Master, as well as lowly in heart. Not that 
he was so by nature, but of a fiery, passionate spirit ; insomuch that he 
has frequently thrown himself on the floor, and lain there most of the 
night bathed in tears, imploring victory over his own temper. And he 
did obtain the victory, in a very eminent degree. For twenty years and 
upwards before his death, no one ever saw him out of temper, or heard 
him utter a rash expression, on any provocation whatever. 1 And he did 
not want provocation, and that sometimes in a high degree ; especially 
from those whose religious sentiments he thought it his duty to oppose. 
But none of these things moved him : no, not in the least degree. The 
keenest word he used was, ' What a world, what a religious world we 
live in ! ' I have often thought the testimony, that Bishop Burnet bears 
of Archbishop Leighton, might be borne of him with equal propriety : 
' After an intimate acquaintance of many years, and after being with 
him by night and by day, at home and abroad, in public and in private, 
on sundry occasions and in various affairs, — I must say, I never heard 
an idle word drop from his lips, nor any conversation which was not to 
the use of edifying. I never saw him in any temper, in which I myself 
would not have wished to be found at death.' Any one, who has been 
intimately acquainted with Mr. Fletcher, will say the same of him : and 
they who knew him best will say it with the most assurance. 

" Hence arose his readiness to bear with the weaknesses, and forgive 
the faults of others : which was the more remarkable, considering his 
flaming zeal against sin, and his concern for the glory of God. Such 
hatred to sin, and such love to the sinner, I never saw joined together 
before. 

" He never mentioned the faults of an absent person, unless absolute 
duty required it. And then he spoke with the utmost tenderness, 
extenuating, rather than aggravating. None could draw his picture 
more exactly than St. Paul has done, in the thirteenth chapter of the 
first Epistle to the Corinthians. ' He suffered long and was kind ; he 
envied not ; acted not rashly ; was not puffed up ; did not behave him- 
self unseemly; sought not his own; was not easily provoked; he thought 
no evil ; rejoiced not in iniquity, but rejoiced in the truth ; he covered 
all things ; believed all things ; hoped all things ; and endured all 
things.' It would be easy to enlarge on all these particulars, and show 
how they were exemplified in him ; but, waiving this, I would only 
observe, that, with regard to two of them, kindness to others, and not 
seeking his own, he had few equals. 

" His kindness to others was such, that he bestowed his all upon 
them : his time, his talents, his substance. His knowledge, his elo- 
quence, his health, his money, were employed, day by day, for the good 



1 Wesley's "Life of Fletcher," p. 173. 



572 



Wesley s Designated Successor. [1785- 



of mankind. He prayed, he wrote, he preached, he visited the sick 
and well, he conversed, he gave, he laboured, he suffered, winter and 
summer, night and day: he endangered, nay, destroyed his health, 
and in the end gave his life also for the profit of his neighbours, that 
they might be saved from everlasting death. He denied himself even 
of such food as was necessary for him, that he might have to give to 
them that had none. And when he was constrained to change his 
manner of living, still his diet was plain and simple. And so were his 
clothing and furniture, that he might save all that was possible for his 
poor neighbours. 

"He sought not his own in any sense : not his own honour, but the 
honour of God, in all he said or did. He sought not his own interest, 
but the interest of his Lord, spreading knowledge, holiness, and happi- 
ness, as far as he possibly could. He sought not his own pleasure, but 
studied to ' please all men, for their good to edification ; ' and to please 
Him that had called him to His kingdom and glory. 

' ' But I do not attempt his full character. I will only add, ' He was 
blameless and harmless, a son of God, without rebuke, in the midst 
of a crooked and perverse generation : shining among thein as a 
light in the world. ' ' ' 

Both Wesley and Benson insert this eulogium in their 
lives of Fletcher ; but Wesley adds : — 

" I think one talent wherewith God had endued Mr. Fletcher has not 
been sufficiently noted yet. I mean his courtesy; in which there was 
not the least touch either of art or affectation. It was pure and genuine, 
and sweetly constrained him to behave to everyone (although particularly 
to inferiors), in a manner not to be described : with so inexpressible a 
mixture of humility, love, and respect. This directed his words, the 
tone of his voice, his looks, his whole attitude, his every motion. 

" ' Grace was in all his steps, heaven in his eye, 
In all his gestures sanctity and love.' " 

The entry of Fletcher's death, in the register of Madeley 
parish church, is a brief obituary : — 

" Memorandum. 

"John Fletcher, Clerk, died on Sunday evening, August 14, 1785. 
He was one of the most apostolic men of the age in which he lived. 
His abilities were extraordinary, and his labours were unparalleled. 
He was a burning and shining light ; and as his life had been a common 
blessing to the inhabitants of this parish, so the death of this great 
man was lamented by them as a common and irreparable loss. 

"This little testimony was inserted by one who sincerely loved and 
honoured him. 

"Joshua Gilpin, Vicar of Rockwardine." 



Age 55-] Inscription on Fletcher's Tombstone. 573 



The inscription on his tombstone was written by his widow, 
and is as follows 1 : — 

" Here lies the Body of 
THE REV. JOHN" WILLIAM DE LA FLECHERE, 

Vicar of Madeley, 
Who was born at Nyon, in Switzerland, 
September the 12TH, 1720, 
And finished his course, August the 14TH, 1785, 
In this Village ; 
where his unexampled labours 
will long be remembered. 

he exercised his ministry for the space of 
Twenty- five Years, 
In this Parish, 
with uncommon zeal and ability. 

many believed his report, and became 

HIS JOY AND CROWN OF REJOICING ; 
WHILE OTHERS CONSTRAINED HIM TO TAKE UP 
THE LAMENTATION OF THE PROPHET, 

'ALL THE DAY LONG HAVE I STRETCHED OUT MY HANDS 
UNTO A DISOBEDIENT AND GAINSAYING PEOPLE : 
YET SURELY MY JUDGMENT IS WITH THE LORD, 
AND MY WORK WITH MY GOD.' 

" 1 He being dead, yet s^eaketh.' " 

Another monument of Fletcher must be mentioned, erected 
in Methodism's " Westminster Abbey " — the sacred old chapel 
in City Road, London. It is placed on the right-hand side of the 
communion table, immediately under a monument of Wesley. 
The sculpture at the top of it is a representation of the Ark 
of the Covenant. At one side are volumes, inscribed with the 
words, " Checks," and " Portrait of St. Paul." At the other side 



1 The inscription, given at the end of Wesley's "Life of Fletcher," 
is slightly different. In an unpublished letter, to Mrs. Crosby, dated 
August 16, 1788, Mrs. Fletcher wrote: "What was written on my dear's 
tomb was different from my directions, though done with a good design 
to mend my language. I saw it not to be as good as my own, and had 
it altered" (then follows the inscription). " Compare this with that in 
Mr. Wesley's ' Life,' and give Mr. Downes a copy of the right one. Every 
one was much pleased with the change ; and, indeed, I was never at 
ease till it was done ; but there were so many anxious to have it right 
that they spoiled it." 



574 



Wesley s Designated Successor. [1785- 



is an expanded scroll, with the motto, " With the meekness 
of wisdom." At the bottom is a dove, hovering over pens 
and a roll of paper. The inscription on the tablet, composed 
by the Rev. Richard Watson, 1 is as follows : — 

" Sacred to the Memory of 
THE REV. JOHN WILLIAM DE LA FLECHERE, 

Vicar of Madeley in Shropshire ; 
Born at Nyon, in Switzerland, the xii. of September, 
a.d. mdccxxix ; died the xiv. of august, mdcclxxxv. 

A MAN EMINENT FOR GENIUS, ELOQUENCE, AND THEOLOGICAL LEARNING ; 
STILL MORE DISTINGUISHED FOR SANCTITY OF MANNERS, AND THE VIRTUES OF PRIMITIVE 

CHRISTIANITY. 

ADORNED WITH 'WHATSOEVER THINGS ARE PURE, WHATSOEVER THINGS ARE LOVELY,' 
AND BRINGING FORTH ' THE FRUITS OF THE SPIRIT,' IN SINGULAR RICHNESS AND MATURITY. 
THE MEASURE OF EVERY OTHER GRACE IN HIM WAS EXCEEDED BY HIS DEEP AND UNAFFECTED 

HUMILITY. 

OF ENLARGED VIEWS AS TO THE MERIT OF THE ATONEMENT, 
AND OF THOSE GRACIOUS RIGHTS WITH WHICH IT INVESTS ALL WHO BELIEVE, 
HE HAD ' BOLDNESS TO ENTER INTO THE HOLIEST BY THE BLOOD OF JESUS,' 
AND IN REVERENT AND TRANSPORTING CONTEMPLATIONS,— THE HABIT OF HIS DEVOUT AND 

HALLOWED SPIRIT,— 
THERE DWELT AS BENEATH THE WINGS OF THE CHERUBIM, 
BEHOLDING ' THE GLORY OF GOD IN THE FACE OF JESUS CHRIST,' AND WAS 'CHANGED INTO 

THE SAME IMAGE ; ' 

TEACHING BY HIS OWN ATTAINMENTS, MORE THAN EVEN BY HIS WRITINGS, THE FULNESS OF 
EVANGELICAL PROMISES, 
AND WITH WHAT INTIMACY OF COMMUNION MAN MAY WALK WITH GOD. 

HE WAS THE FRIEND AND COADJUTOR OF THE REV. JOHN WESLEY, 
WHOSE APOSTOLIC VIEWS OF THE DOCTRINES OF GENERAL REDEMPTION, JUSTIFICATION BY 
FAITH, AND CHRISTIAN PERFECTION, HE SUCCESSFULLY DEFENDED, 
LEAVING TO FUTURE AGES AN ABLE EXPOSITION OF ' THE TRUTH WHICH IS ACCORDING TO 

GODLINESS,' 

AND ERECTING AN IMPREGNABLE RAMPART AGAINST PHARISAIC AND ANTINOMIAN ERROR, 
IN A SERIES OF WORKS, DISTINGUISHED BY THE BEAUTY OF THEIR STYLE, BY FORCE OF 

ARGUMENT, 

AND BY A GENTLE AND CATHOLIC SPIRIT; AFFORDING AN EDIFYING EXAMPLE OF 'SPEAKING 
THE TRUTH IN LOVE,' 
IN A LONG AND ARDENT CONTROVERSY. 

FOR TWENTY-FIVE YEARS, THE PARISH OF MADELEY WAS THE SCENE OF HIS UNEXAMPLED 

PASTORAL LABOURS ; 

AND HE WAS THERE INTERRED, AMIDST THE TEARS AND LAMENTATIONS OF THOUSANDS. 
THE TESTIMONY OF THEIR HEARTS TO HIS EXALTED PIETY, AND TO HIS UNWEARIED EXERTIONS 
FOR THEIR SALVATION t 
BUT HIS MEMORY TRIUMPHED OVER DEATH \ 
AND HIS SAINTLY EXAMPLE EXERTS INCREASING INFLUENCE IN THE CHURCHES OF CHRIST, 
THROUGH THE STUDY OF HIS WRITINGS, AND THE PUBLICATION OF HIS BIOGRAPHY. 

IN TOKEN OF THEIR VENERATION FOR HIS CHARACTER, 
'AND IN GRATITUDE FOR THE SERVICES RENDERED BY HIM TO THE CAUSE OF TRUTH, 
THIS MONUMENT WAS ERECTED BY THE TRUSTEES OF THIS CHAPEL, A.D. MDCCCXXII." 



1 Jackson's "Centenary of Methodism," p. 186. 



Age 55.] 



Conclusion. 



575 



No wonder that Wesley desired and requested Fletcher to 
be his successor ; and no wonder that, while among his 
numerous publications there is only one biography written by 
himself, that conspicuous exception is " A Short Account 
of the Life and Death of the Rev. John Fletcher." 

Fletcher was distinguished for his genius ; his learning ; 
and his biblical and theological knowledge; but let all 
Methodists, throughout the world and as long as Methodism 
lasts, remember, in all their church-meetings and church- 
appointments, that " Wesley's Designated Successor " was 
pre-eminently, — "A Good Man, AND FULL OF THE Holy 
Ghost and of Faith." 



THE END 



ttazell, Watson, and Viney, Printers, London and Aylesbury; 



INDEX. 



NAMES OF PERSONS AND PLACES. 



Aberford, 119 

Abergavenny, 184 

Agutter, Rev. William, 144, 145 

Appian Way, 162 

Applet on, Mr., 22 

Asbury, Francis, 3 

Ashworth, Dr., 532 

Atcham, 21, 22, 29, 31 

Atlay, John, 340, 433, 545, 546 

Atmore, Charles. 542, 545 

Baratier, M., 145 
Bardsley, Samuel, 548 
Barnard, Mary, 74 
Barry, James, 424 
Bath, 102, 121, 172. 393, 420 
Batley, 494, 496, 497 
Bayley, Rev. Cornelius, 461, 462, 508, 
542 

Beaumont, John, 543 

Beaumont, Dr. Joseph, 543 

Bell, George, 84, 85. 90 

Benson, Joseph, 3, 39, 157, 159, 166, 
167, 175— 177> 179, 182, 183, 209, 
216, 220, 254, 255, 310, 326, 348, 
355—358, 367, 37o, 395, 462, 532, 
533, 543, 546, 570—572 

Bentley, Rev. Mr., 119 

Berkeley, Dr., 534 

Berridge, Rev. John. 51 — 53, 62, 172, 
283—285, 294, 298, 307, 330, 334, 

345, 37i, 387 
Berwick, 111, 154 
Birches, The, 274 
Birstal, 487, 517 
Bouverot, Rev. Mr., 531 
Boothby, William, 442 
Bosanquet, Miss, 15, 28, 93, 126, 400, 

401, 410, 448, 463, 467, 479—497, 

499, 529 



Bosanquet, Claudius, Esq.. 488, 492 
Bosanquet, S., Esq., 479, 488, 490 — 492 
Bosanquet, S. R., Esq., 475 
Bosanquet, William, Esq., 492, 494, 

556 

Bourignon, Madam, 463 

Bradburn, Samuel, 266 — 268, 494 

Bradford, 493, 494, 501 

Bradford, Joseph, 327 

Brammah, Mrs., 471 

Brecknock, 181 

Breedon, 100. 152 

Brighton, 51, 111, 120 

Brisco, Thomas, 487 

Bristol, 31, 33. 34, 102, 131, 144, 158, 

172, 180, 238, 242, 255, 330, 357, 

388, 394—397, 519 
Bristol, Earl of, 401 
Brooke, Robert, 506, 507 
Brooke, Henry, 506, 507, 520, 521, 538, 

552 

Broseley, 363, 405, 430 

Brown, Rev. Mr., 103, 107, 1 1 8, 331 

Buchan, Earl of, 123, 275 

Burchell, Mr., 10 

Barnet, Rev. Mr., 119 

Burslem, 548 

Cartwright, Rev. Mr., 21 
Cartwright, Molly, 442, 445. 446 
Chambers, Rev. Mr., 47, 55 
Chateau d'Oex, 426, 427 
Cheek, Rev. Moseley, 515 
Cheshunt College, 137 
Chester, 267, 415, 429 
Childs, Elizabeth, 272 
Clarke, Dr. Adam, 268, 396, 548 
Clarke, Mary, 33 

Coalbrook Dale, 63, 64, 99, 363, 392, 
430, 445, 527 



37 



578 



Index. 



Coke, Rev. Dr., 331—333, 433, 4&3, 
466, 518, 530, 531, 542, 544 

Coles, Elisha, 155 

Conyers, Rev. Dr., 119, 417 

Costerdine, Robert, 429 

Connd, Mrs., 405, 430 

Cownley, Joseph, 90, 358 

Creighton, Rev. James, 544 

Crisp, Rev. Dr., 194, 202, 214 

Crosby, Sarah, 28, 33, 400, 467, 473, 
475, 479, 480, 495, 573 

Crosse, Rev. John, 461, 493 

Cross Hall, 467, 486, 489, 494, 495, 502 

Crowther, Jonathan, 82, 523 

Dartmouth, Earl of, 353 
Daventry, 532 

Davies, Rev. Howell, 149 — 151 

Dawley, 429, 503 

De Eons, Mr., 489 

De Champs, Mr., 11, 4S8 

De Courcy, Rev. Mr., 472 

Deighton, Rev. John, 497 

De Luc, Mr., 511 

Deptford, 418 

Dewsbury, 433 

Dickenson, Rev. Peard, 554 

Dillon, Rev. Mr., 543 

Dixon, Dr. James, 396 

Dort, Synod of, 1 55 

Downs, Mr., 44 

Downes, John, 90 

Downs, John, 44 

Dublin, 221, 506, 508, 517— 522, 530 
Dunham, 54 

Easterbrook, Rev. Joseph, 131 — 134, 
144 

Eddowes, Mr., 288 

Edmondson, Jonathan, 152 

Edmunds, Daniel, 403 

Edmunds, Winifred, 558 

Edwards, Richard. 14, 23, 31 

Eells, William, 545, 546 

Elliott, Sir John, 388 

Elwall, Edward, 218, 219 

Erskine, Lady Anne, 117, 120, 137, 

149, 171, 174 
Evans, Caleb, 334, 347—353, 357, 35§ 
Everton, 51, 371 

Fennel, John, 550 
Ferrars, Earl of, 50 

Fitzgerald, Lady Mary, 401, 473, 474, 

501, 509, 540, 552, 558, 569 
Fletcher, Henry, 11, 14, 18,498, 559 
Fletcher, Mrs., 502 — 504, 508, 512, 517 
—519, 521, 522, 539, 550, 553, 556, 

558-565, 56S, 569, 573 
Fothergill, Dr., 390 
Fox, Mr., 370 
Furley, Miss, 44, 46 



Garforth, Thomas, 498 
Geneva, 7, 445, 454 
Genoa, 160 

Gilbert, Nathaniel, Esq., 36, 513 
Gilbert, Rev. Nathaniel, 513, 514 
Gildersome, 480 

Gilpin, Rev. Joshua, 81, 160, 445, 455, 

512, 515, 520, 567, 572 
Glascott, Rev. Cradock, 120, 121, 135, 

136, 154, 189 
Glazebrook, Rev. James, 122, 124 
Glenorchy, Lady, 174, 175 
Glossop, 389 
Glynne, Mrs., 22, 518 
Gold, Mrs., 476 
Good, Mr., 370 
Gorham, Mr., 371, 372, 466 
Greaves, Rev. Alexander B., 365, 366, 

368, 384, 388, 389, 404, 414, 423, 

43i, 436, 438, 440, 445, 46o, 461 
Green, Rev. Mr.. 14 
Greenwood, Charles, 372. 373, 382, 390, 

392, 409, 432, 433, 460, 516, 541 
Greenwood, James, 372 
Grimshaw, Rev. William, 97, 119, 384 

Halifax, 494 

Hampson, John, senior, 545, 546 
Hampson, John, junior, 545, 546 
Hanby, Thomas, 3, 542 
Hare, Mr., 370 

Harris, Howell, 148 — 151, 171, 182 — 
184 

Harwich, 141 
Hatfield, 10 
Hatherleigh, 121 

Hatton, Miss, 90, 91, 95, 106 — 108, 
in, 115 

Hatton, Rev. Mr., 80, 513, 564, 565 

Hatton, Samuel, 90, 91, 188, 429 

Haughton, Mr., 78 

Haworth, 119 

Hay, 182 

Helmsley, 418 

Henderson, John, 144 — 148 

Henderson, Richard, 145 — 147, 149 

Hereford, Bishop of, 58, 389 

Hern, Jonathan, 442 

Hervey, Rev. James, 345 

Hicks, Rev. Mr., 52 

Hill, Noel, Esq., 489 

Hill, Sir Richard, 40, Hi, 120, 154, 
189, 215, 219, 223—237-, 241, 244, 
248—252, 279—282, 285 — 295, 299, 
303, 307, 3n— 313, 316—320, 322, 
33o, 334, 335 

Hill, Rev. Rowland, 178, 186, 237,241. 
244, 245, 248, 287, 330, 334, 385, 
387, 472 

Hill, Thomas, Esq., II, 14, 22, 25, 29, 
32, 35, 37, 4i, 47, 54, 55> 5§, 64, 

488,489 



Index. 



579 



Hodson, John, 98 

Holy, Thomas, 471 

Hopper, Christopher, 3 

Home, Rev. Melville, 88, 126, 513— 

5i6, 555 
Hotham. Sir Charles, 1 1 1 
Hotham, Lady Gertrude. 49 
Hoxton Square, 476 
Huddersfield, 119, 121 
Hull, 370 
Hurrel, Miss, 400 

Huntingdon, Countess of. 31, 32, 37, 
44, 48—52, 56, 57, 59, 62, 64, 102, 
in, 116— 122, 125, 131, 134, 136, 
137,- 143, 149, 151, 155, 157, 164, 
171, 172, 174, 175, 178—190, 192, 
197, 209, 264, 299—302, 305, 310, 
345, 357, 387, 393, 5°i 

Ingham, Rev. Benjamin, 119 
Ireland, James, Esq., 103, 104, 109, 
115, 118, 120, 121, 137, 138, 140, 
155, 156, 158, 160 — 162, 171, 189, 
191, 192, 194, 197, 269, 299, 301, 
348, 355> 365, 366, 378, 387, 388, 
392, 393, 399, 407, 409, 410, 416— 
421, 424, 427, 436, 440, 444, 445, 
447, 45°, 460, 472, 549, 557, 5 6 9 
Ireland, Miss, 107, 108, 138, 139 

Jackson, Daniel, 519 
Jackson, Thomas, 332 
Janes, Thomas, 242, 243 
Jobson, Dr., 505 
Johnson, Ann, 474 
Johnson, Dr., 146, 347 
Jones, Rev. John, 141— 144 
Jones, Sir William. 146 

Keen, Mr., 117, 137 
Kinaston, Mr., 489 

Kingswood, 31, 64. 131, 144, 147, 152, 

157, 462 
Kippax, 118 — 120 
Knipe, Mrs., 418 
Knowles, Dr., 420 
Kruse. Mrs., 39 
Kruse, Peter, 39 

Lausanne, 435, 439, 440, 443, 447, 489 
Lawrence, Sarah, 477, 518, 563 
Ledsham, 153 
Lee, Mr., 111 
Lee, Thomas, 545 

Leeds, 121, 465—470, 477, 481, 532, 

54i, 545—549 
Lefevre, Mrs., 475 
Lentzburg, 7 
Lewen. Miss, 478. 479 
Ley, Rev. William, 85 
Leytonstone, 475, 476, 479, 489; 491 
Liverpool, Lord, 401 



Llanbister, 395 

Llangollen, 518 

Lloyd, Rev. David, 395 

Lloyd, John, 171, 188 

London, 11, 36 — 39, 41, 47, 49, 50, 84, 

in, 114, 180, 242, 447, 573 
Lowestoft, 369 

Loxdale, Miss Ann, 462 — 464, 468 
Ludlow, 78 
Lyons, 447 

Macon, 416, 417, 419 

Madan, Rev. Martin, 52, 79, 119, 134, 

215, 246, 324, 361 
Madeley, 47, 55, 57—62, 76, 89, 93, 

158, 191, 255, 258, 369, 373, 382, 

389, 405, 415, 423, 429, 430, 450, 

460, 489, 492, 502, 505, 526, 527, 

530, 539, 551 
Madeley Wood, 63, 64, 74, 76, 79, 83, 

118, 255, 388, 403, 429, 430, 438, 

526, 527, 547 
Maidenhead, 152 
Manchester, 461 
Marseilles, 160, 416, 448 
Mather, Alexander, 3, 99, 209 
I Matthews, Mary, 74, 76, 77 
Maxfield, Rev. Thomas, 33, 39, 84, 85, 

90, 91, 144, 180, 181 
Maxwell, Lady, 220 
Medhurst, Mrs., 119, 120 
Minethorpe, William, 99 
Montpelier, 155, 410, 414, 416, 447, 461 
Moore, Henry, 412, 519,542, 543 
More, Miss Hannah, 146 
Morris, James, 347 
Murlin, John, 415, 477, 479 

Nelson, John, 3, 517 
Newcastle-on-Tyne. 356 
Newton, Rev. John, 283 
: North, Lord, 437, 438 
Norwich, 369 

Nowell, Rev. Dr., 154, 206. 232 
Nyon. 4, 7, 9, 156. 162, 415, 421, 424 — 

427, 431, 434—436, 439, 443—446, 

453, 455, 464, 488, 498 

Oathall, in, 112, 117 

Olivers, Thomas, 3, 190, 208, 209, 232, 

290^ 335, 337, 339 
Onions, Michael, 363, 385, 392, 432, 

445, 446 
Orton, Miss, 117, 171 
Otley. 541 

Owen, Rev. Mr., 189 
Owen, John, 445, 446 

Palmer, Robert, 388 
Pawson, John, 3, 153, 242 
Peckwell, Rev. Dr., 385, 387 
Perronet, Charles, 252, 364, 365, 390 



Index. 



Perronet, Miss Damans, 385, 389, 390, 

407, 473 
Perronet, Edward, 285 
Perronet, Henry, 97 
Perronet, Rev. Vincent, 364, 365, 385, 

390, 407, 419, 430, 432, 447, 499, 500. 

554, 556 

Perronet, William, 389, 399, 415, 419, 
425—428, 431—435, 439, 440, 444, 

447, 499, 5°o 
Pescod, Joseph, 466 
Pewsey/119 

Pilmoor, Joseph, 3, 543, 545, 546 
Pine, William, 191, 192, 349 
Pool, John, 545 
Power, Mr.. 420 
Powley, Rev. Mr.. 119 
Powys, Thomas, Esq., 11 1, 115, 189, 
215 

Preston, Mr., 370 

Price, Dr., 219, 334, 350— 353, 357, 

358, 387 
Price, Owen, 38 
Priestley, Dr., 531— 537 
Pritchard, John, 545 
Prothero, Rev. Mr., 65 

Ramsden, Mr., 370 
Rankin, Thomas, 3, 447, 464 
Reader, Thomas, 320 
Reading, 407 

Richardson, Rev. Mr., 119 

Ritchie, Miss, 400, 541 

Roberts, John, 274 

Rock Church, 76, 79 

Refers, Hester Ann, 467 — 471, 473, 

485 V 

Rogers, James, 397, 467 

Romaine, Rev. W T illiam, ill, 122, 154, 

174, 345, 472 
Rome, 410 

Roquet, Rev. Janes, 242, 243, 355, 366 
Rowlands, Rev. Daniel, 148, 149, 151, 

171, 172 

Rutherford, Thomas, 3, 519 

Ryan, Sarah, 28, 33, 35, 43. 46. 475 — 

477, 480 
Ryland, Rev. Mr., 119 

Scott, Captain, 116 — 118, 120 

Sellon, Rev. Walter, 101, 151, 187, 

206—208, 219, 232, 252, 292 
Serle, Ambrose, 294 
Shadford, George, 3 
Sheffield, 467, 471 
Sherlock, Bishop, 32, 534 
Shirley, Lady P ranees, 49 
Shirley, Rev. Walter, 50, 149—151,171, 

172, 174, 177, 179, 183, 185, 188— 
197, 201 — 204, 207, 209—215, 220 — 
223, 229, 238, 239, 334, 345, 378, 
385, 387 



Shoreham, 385, 407 

Shrewsbury, 22, 29, 31, 34, 97, 120, 

136, 191, 288. 430, 518 
Simeon, Rev. Charles, 551. 552 
Simpson, Mr., 370 
Simpson, Rev. David, 168, 543 
Smisby, 152 

Smith, William, 467, 497 

Smyth, Mrs., 518, 519, 539 

Smyth, William, 518, 520, 522 

South Mimms, 10 

Southey, Robert, 329 

St. Albans, 14 

St. Neots, 371, 372, 466 

Stevenson, G. J,, 209, 549 

Stillingfleet, Rev. Edward. 133, 394 

Stoke Newington, 372, 373, 382, 391. 

403, 408, 409, 484, 552 
Story, George, 3 
Swedenborg, Baron. 531 

Taunton, 320, 357 
Tavan, Mr., 489 
Taylor, Isaac, 329 
Taylor Richard. 479 — 482, 498 
Taylor, Thomas, 3, 395, 542 
Terry, Mr., 370 
Thompson, William, 3 
Thornton, Mrs., 402, 433, 516, 552 
Thornton, John, Esq., 283. 284, 378, 
388, 418 

Toplady, Rev. Augustus. 154, 203, 206, 
208, 232, 284, 294, 312, 324, 334— 

347, 45 1- 
Townsend, Rev. Joseph, 119, 132 
Tranter, William, 503 
Trevecca College, 116, 117, 121, 131, 

134—137, Hi, 144, 145, 148— 151, 
157, 158, 164, 171, 175—186, 209, 

559 

Tripp, Ann, 28, 477, 497 
Tunbridge, 31, 32 
Turner, Dr., 387 

Valton, John, 496, 498, 516 
Vaughan, Mr., 22, 29, 42, 268, 269, 
353, 358 

Venn, Rev. Henry, 52, 111, 119, 122, 
133, I7i, 172, 174, 371, 393, 394, 
529, 569. 

Voltaire, 416, 452, 457 

Walsh, Father, 215 

Walsh, Thomas, 28, 30, 37, 38 

Wandsworth, 36 

Wase, William, 384, 388, 405, 429, 

438, 442, 444 
Washington, General George, 347 
Watson, Richard, 574 
Wellington, 99 
Wem, 90, 95, 107, 177 
Wenlock, 79 



Index. 



581 



Wesley, Rev. Charles, 31, 32, 35 — 38, 
41, 42, 44= 45, 47, 48, 50, 5 1 , 55= 57, 
62—64, 66, 76, 78— So, 84, 89 — 91, 
96, 97, 129, 132, 141, 142, 152, 172, 
1S0, 222, 285, 310, 327, 328, 346, 
359—362, 367, 402, 433, 484, 511, 

544, 556, 557, 565 
Y esley, Rev. John, 1 — 3, 9, 16, 20, 23, 
25, 26, 28, 29, 32, 34, 36/ 50, 57, 59, 
67, 82, 84, 90, 91, 96, 122, 129, 132 
—134, 136, 141, 148, 150—154, 157, 
169, 173 — 177, 180 — 209, 220, 222, 
224, 225, 231, 232. 234—238, 241— 
243, 256, 263 — 266. 270, 280 — 282, 
285—289. 298, 304. 307, 310, 321, 
322. 324—329. 335, 336, 339—349, 
35I—35 8 , 369, 37o, 37 2 , 373, 380, 
384- 392, 394, 395, 402. 40S, 410, 
411, 430,433, 45i,46o, 463.465.477. 
4S4. 485, 497, 502, 50S, 532, 533. 541 
—549, 55i, 558, 566, 570.. 572. 575 



West Brormvich, 366 
Whatcoat, Richard, 3 
Whitefield, Rev. George, 31, 67, 114 — 
116, 119, 121, 134—136, 148, 173, 
174, 180, 186, 187, 204, 265, 345 
Whitehead, Dr. John, 264, 265 
Wilberforce, William, Esq., 146 
Wilcocks, Samuel, 274 
I Wilkes. Tohn, 270 — 273 
| Wilkes,' Sarah, 272 
Williams, Rev. Peter, 149, 150, 171, 172 
Williams, Rev. William. 148 — 150, 171, 
172 

Wood, Enoch, 548 
Wroxeter, 29 

Yates, Mr., 523 
Yelling, 371 
York, 120, 370 

York, Thomas, 403, 405, 424, 454, 438, 
441 




^1. ° * 

* Deacidified using the Bookkeeper process. 
- Neutralizing agent: Magnesium Oxide 
Treatment Date: May 2006 

PreservationTechnologies 

A WORLD LEADER IN PAPER PRESERVATION 

1 1 1 Thomson Park Drive 
Cranberry Township, PA 16066 
(724) 779-2111 



